CONVAIR NX-2 CAMAL, The Story Of The Secret Post WW2 Atomic Powered Bomber Plane

Video from the channel DroneScapes about Convair, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 1:53:12. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

This is a compilation of documentaries running a little under two hours. Only the first segment, about 22 minutes long, deals with Convair: it covers the American attempt to develop a nuclear-powered bomber, the NX-2, which was assigned to Convair, maker of the B-36. The rest of the video gathers other documentaries about the Enola Gay's mission against Hiroshima, Paul Tibbets' career, and the development of the B-29. It ends with a generic montage on the history of aviation. That part has no connection to Convair.

The program emerged in the climate of the early Cold War years, after the bombing of Hiroshima. The NEPA study began in May 1946 at Oak Ridge (Tennessee). Its goal was to check whether nuclear power could propel an aircraft. From there, Convair was commissioned to design the NX-2. A tornado at Carswell Air Force Base damaged several B-36s, and one of them became a test bed with a General Electric reactor on board. That reactor did not propel the aircraft: it served to study the shielding that would be needed. Adapting the Saunders-Roe Princess flying boat was also studied. In December 1958, an Aviation Week editorial attributed to the Soviet Union a nuclear aircraft derived from the Tu-95, but the information turned out to be false.

On the test B-36, the cockpit was shielded with about 12 tons of lead and leaded glass. The documentary summarizes the project's technical obstacles: radiation, heat, the risk in case of an accident, and above all, the weight of the shielding, about 10 tons for every ton of reactor. The KC-135 entered service in 1957, and in-flight refueling of B-52s made it possible to keep bombers airborne for long periods, so the reactor was no longer necessary. After spending more than 500 million dollars, the program was canceled in 1961, with Kennedy already in the presidency. The second segment highlights the formation of the 509th Composite Group at Wendover (Utah) in September 1944, and the Hiroshima bombing of 6 August 1945, at 9:15:17 Tinian time, which caused between 60,000 and 80,000 deaths. It was followed by the attack on Nagasaki on 9 August, after which Japan surrendered.