Word: nuclear
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...wrong or because he thinks the U.S. is repeating the mistakes of "imperialism." His argument is less expansive: the war is poisoning U.S.-Russian relations. As long as it continues, the Soviets will find it politically impossible to negotiate seriously with the U.S. on two issues of paramount importance: nuclear disarmament and the strengthening of the UN's peace-keeping machinery. Lord Harlech does not make the simple claim that Europe is more "important" than the Far East. Rather he implies that progress toward a world-wide East-West detente is more important than the rather confused issues at stake...
With its remaining payload capacity of 180,000 Ibs., the nuclear dirigible could carry 400 passengers and a crew of 95. It would have staterooms with private baths, a movie theater, cocktail lounge, and a dining room seating 200. Using nuclear fuel, the goliath of the skies could cruise endlessly around the world, picking up and disembarking passengers with an 18-place shuttle plane that would have its own hangar amidships. An all-cargo version of the dirigible could fly 150 compact cars across the Atlantic in 40 hours at a cost of about $140 per vehicle...
...fatal weaknesses of earlier dirigibles, Morse's airship would be constructed of high-strength alloys of titanium and aluminum, the outer covering of durable nylon fabric. Radar and improved meteorological forecasting would enable the ship to avoid severe storms. The use of nonflammable helium for buoyancy and nuclear instead of chemical fuel for propulsion would virtually eliminate the danger of fire and explosion...
More Lift, Less Drag. The nuclear airship's size-177 ft. longer and 37 ft. greater in diameter than the Hindenburg-would give it an added advantage over even the largest of the old dirigibles, which Morse says were "just at the threshold of efficient performance." Doubling the length of a dirigible, for example, increases its weight four times, but provides an eightfold increase in lift...
Morse and his Boston University colleagues see no other practical way of achieving nuclear-powered flight in the near future. Though scientists and engineers have worked on plans for nuclear airplanes for more than a decade, they have yet to get off the drawing boards-let alone into the air. The big problems are weight and radiation hazard. A reactor big enough to power a 335,000-lb. 707 jet, for example, would require 225,000 Ibs. of radiation shielding to protect passengers-considerably more than the plane could lift. In the event of a crash, the high impact speed...