Re: Airplane crash

["Dale E. Boyce" <dale@radpro.uchicago.edu>]

Looking back at the ring binder I received from the University of Texas
shielding short course I attended a few years ago, I found some
drawings and sketches of an "ASTR" reactor and a "NTA" (Nuclear
Test Aircraft?).  Studies were done to determine sheiding requirements.
The plane was not nuclear powered.  It has Conair Crusader logo on
the cockpit.  It looks like a B-46 to me ( 6 pusher prop engines in
the wing and what appears to be two jet engines on a single pylon
under each wing.)

It was included in the sheilding class as a Sky Shine problem.  Turns
out that sheilding between the reactor and the pilots didn't reduce
the dose as much as first expected due to radiation scattering off
of the air outside the plane and back into the cockpit.  I do not
remember how many flights were made or if the reactor had anywhere near
enough power to fly a plane.  Since a horsepower is about a kilowatt
and this plane looks like it takes of the order of 10000 horsepower to
fly, my bet is that the reactor was no where near 10 Megawatts

Dale Boyce
dale@radpro.uchicago.edu