Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Convair X-6

Convair X-6

Voting period is over. Please don't add any new votes. Voting period ends on 15 Jul 2015 at 00:37:19 (UTC)

Original – From the image caption: An air-to-air view of a Convair NB-36H Peacemaker experimental aircraft, part of the attempt to design a nuclear powered aircraft deemed the Convair X-6, and a Boeing B-50 Superfortress chase plane, during research and development taking place at the Convair plant at Forth Worth, Texas. This plane was modified to carry a three megawatt, air-cooled nuclear reactor in its bomb bay. The reactor was operational but did not power the plane. The NTA completed 47 test flights and 215 hours of flight time, though this is the only known airborne reactor experiment by the US with an operational nuclear reactor on board.

Reason

It's a plane meant to be powered by nuclear energy. Technical quality is good for its age, and the coolness factor makes me feel like a little boy again, imagining holing up against zombies in the Diefenbunker... (I was, needless to say, a little strange)

Articles in which this image appears

Convair X-6, Nuclear powered aircraft, +2

FP category for this image

Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Vehicles/Air

Creator

United States Air Force

• Support as nominator –  — Chris Woodrich (talk) 00:37, 5 July 2015 (UTC)
• Very interesting historical photograph. 109.153.225.51 (talk) 13:57, 5 July 2015 (UTC)
• Support – Aviation-history EV. Interesting that both the U.S. and the Soviet Union developed test planes but soon abandoned their programs. (Hard to understand how a nuke could actually "power" a jet or turboprop engine.) Sca (talk) 14:50, 5 July 2015 (UTC)
  • I'm guessing it was a "small" (how many meters? five? ten?) reactor. Theoretically, such an airplane could stay up indefinitely... no small wonder why they wanted to make it. — Chris Woodrich (talk) 15:17, 5 July 2015 (UTC)
• Support Interesting. Brandmeister^talk 17:53, 5 July 2015 (UTC)
• Support EV is huge, and looks visually captivating... gazhiley 08:45, 6 July 2015 (UTC)
• Support - I'm positively glowing with envy that you've found this *a-hyuk-hyuk-hyuk* --Ser Amantio di Nicolao^{Che dicono a Signa?}_{Lo dicono a Signa.} 14:27, 6 July 2015 (UTC)
• Support - Stellar...-Godot13 (talk) 16:05, 6 July 2015 (UTC)
• Support -Jobas (talk) 00:02, 7 July 2015 (UTC)
• Support - P. S. Burton (talk) 23:03, 7 July 2015 (UTC)
• Support I can't understand why we don't have nuclear powered planes; sounds so safe. Belle (talk) 23:43, 8 July 2015 (UTC)
  • But in case of a crash.... likely a nuclear boom. Check out Sergei Preminin who manually prevented an impending nuclear meltdown on a submarine at the cost of his own life. Brandmeister^talk 11:40, 10 July 2015 (UTC)
• Support Lemon martini (talk) 01:11, 11 July 2015 (UTC)

Promoted File:NB-36H with B-50, 1955 - DF-SC-83-09332.jpeg --Armbrust ^{The Homunculus} 00:54, 15 July 2015 (UTC)