General Electric J87

The General Electric J87 was a nuclear-powered turbojet engine designed to power the proposed WS-125 long-range bomber. The program started in 1955 in conjunction with Convair as a joint engine and airframe proposal, and was one of two nuclear gas turbine projects undertaken by GE, the other being the X39 project. The J87 was a large turbojet designed to operate as a pair around a single nuclear reactor, and the complete power plant carried the project designation X211. Its variable-stator compressors and chemically fuelled afterburners were supplemented by combustion chambers for starting, and half of the air flow cooled the reactor directly. The USAF judged the WS-125 bomber infeasible in 1956, the X211 program ran on without a target aircraft until mid-1959, and all nuclear propulsion funding ended by 1961.