Word: reactor
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Nuclear Jet. Controlling and applying the reactor's awesome power is more difficult than releasing it. A reactor is basically a source of heat, and can be run at any temperature that its structural materials can stand. The most obvious way to turn this heat into propulsive energy is to pierce the reactor with tubes and blow air through them by means of a compressor. The air keeps the reactor from overheating. In doing this service, it gets hot itself. It expands enormously and roars out of the other end of the reactor, spinning a turbine that turns...
Some informed guessers think that the reactor could not transfer enough heat to streams of air blowing through it. One way around this would be to use a molten metal in the reactor instead of air. This "working fluid" would carry energy to one or more jet engines, heating their air blast by a sort of high temperature radiator. The molten metal would not be as fiercely radioactive as the reactor itself, so it should be easier to handle...
Shields for Humans. In any case, an airborne reactor will probably not have to be shielded on all sides. Only the crew's compartment and perhaps certain instruments need to be protected. This might be done partly by mere distance, e.g., by placing the reactors in the tail or far out on the wings. Another obvious trick would be to make the airplane's structural parts or equipment (e.g., the retracted wheels) serve as partial shields. Final protection would be a bulkhead of shielding, to provide a safe "radiation shadow" for the crew's space...
Such a plane, shooting most of its deadly radiation unhindered into the air, will be dangerous on an airfield. When its reactor is running, all men in the vicinity will have to take cover, and the radioactive blasts roaring out of its tailpipes may poison the area permanently. To reduce these hazards, the atom-plane may have to take off with rockets, starting its nuclear engines only when safely up and away. In spite of such precautions it will not be a pleasant airport-mate. Once its reactors have run for a while, they will be radioactive even when shut...
...production of huge bombs. Through chinks in the security wall, the armed forces could be heard talking of smaller atomic bombs for tactical use, and of atomic aircraft carriers. The aircraft industry knows that one company already has a contract for a plane to be powered by an atomic reactor. General Electric has the contract to build the reactor and is now at work on it. And an atomic power plant in a submarine was further proof that atomic energy for industrial use was no pipe dream...