Terrifying Flying Submarine - The Convair Nuclear Submersible Ramjet
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- čas přidán 26. 06. 2021
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The year is 1961. USA needs an edge agaist the soviets. They turned to military supplier Convair, who at the time was looking into various applications of nuclear power in aircraft for the US navy. They had already proposelled the very imaginative submersible seaplane submarine hunter, and naturally had the imagination to think outside of the box. the engineers had so far thought up unmanned nuclear VTOL drones, aircraft caffier launched mach 3 strike craft, both projects that desperately need a future video, as well as giant nuclear seaplanes, much like the Lockheed flying nuclear tug that I put up last week that you can watch right here.
But the US navy wasn't satisfied. they needed something that had the deterrent capacity of a submarine, but would also be able to reach inland targets far from the ocean - after all, if you have ever seen a map of the world, much of the USSR was very far from the sea, and missiles used in the era lacked the flexibility of a manned aircraft.
Thus they needed a craft that could approach enemy terrorty without its presence being known, and then strike quickly. This is what the team at convair came up with.
this top-secret black project would be called the submersible nuclear ramjet. It would be unlike any other aircraft design of the era, and would resemble mroe of a manned nuclear missile than anything. It would have a long sleek design with a diameter of eight feet, as well as being 190 feet in length, with two fuel tanks, one at the front and one at the back, with four different exhaust areas at the rear.
It would have a sea weight of 350,000 pounds, which would lighten up to 240,000 pounds when the tanks were empty. It would be able to carry around 20,000 pounds of nuclear tipped weapons, 24 in total, that would be deployed as parachutes over the target area, allowing the jet to escape quickly. Remember this is the early 1960s, and self guided missiles were sitll just emerging technology.
This is how its mission would work.
this submersible Nuclear Ramjet mission would be one a quick, retaliatory strike. It would be used for operations which had little or no warning, or for when the powers that be deemed a first strike.
The crew of nine would start their deployment being subltly located near the teriroty of a nation, submerged under the sea sitting quiet. The mission profile was long, and would have employed life support systems designed for space missions.
When code red was given, the team would spring to action and pressurise the ballast tanks. These tanks would slowly be heated by the nuclear reactor, forming steam. This would simtaniously start to be released and the aircraft, if we can call it that, would rise from the ocean floor. The water would be vaporise and the jet would launch from the sea like a submarine nuclear missile today.
As the aircraft rose to the sky, it would tilt over until it was facing forward and scream towards the combat zone low to the ground. the ramjet would slowly switch from water to air as a reaction mass and increase up to around mach 4.
Upon reaching the target area, the nuclear weapon would be deployed via parachot from the top of the plane as it soared over ahead, as to not impact the ramjet inlets, and slowly fall down. It would come to rest on the ground, before detonating.
The jet, now presumably outrunning the blast and reaching safer open water, would throttle down its ramjet. It would pull into a vertical climb and then deploy special drag breaks. This would stall the aircraft and it would start to fall almost vertically tail first. Before it hit the water, it would use rocket jets for a rough final deaccelation - much like the space x rockets that we see today!
Once in the water, it would refill its tanks and descend under the waves.
So if it was so incredible, whatever happened to the design?
You might realise that this concept seems very simular to a later one, project pluto, which envisioned a flying nuclear cruise missile, that once completed would dive into the deepest part of the ocean, the marianas trench, to protect the world from the raditation. But as scott from aerospace projects review said in his original aritcle on this topic, the crew are very unlikely to want to sign a one way trip to the darkest and deepest part of the world.
By 1964, nuclear ICMBs were proved to be far more reliable, accurate, harder to stop, and didn't have pesky crew onboard who might have morals about attacking enemy cities with 24 nuclear weapons after spending long months underwater. The project was sunk... well, as far as we know on the USA side.
Whos to say what insane technology the russians have been working on. But thats a video for another time.
corvair really seemed to think nothing was impossible if you threw enough money and engineers at the problem
you have just described Rescarch and desgin
An attitude we've sadly lost today
@@weddellseal8414 *Research and *development.
As one who has played KSP, I think it's safe to say that isnt exactly incorrect.
@@Daimo83 are you kidding me? Have you looked at Congress lately? That's all they think! They don't even bother with critical thinking anymore. Economy in trouble? print money! Boeing's new rocket doesn't work? Print money get more engineers! Nobody wants to work? Print money! Get more social engineers! Inflation is a problem? We're out of computer chips? Janet Yellen lost her glasses and can't read a stock market ticker to save her life? Print money! Contact Pringles! And for gosh sakes get some IT in here to install a jumbotron!
"There's more plane underwater than submarine airbone." They said
I can PLANEly SEA the logic of this!!😄
@@sonnyd.6777 Schenkelklopfer 😆
@@sonnyd.6777 yuyyyyyyyyyyuyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyuyyyyyyyuyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyuyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyuyyyyyyyyy_
I would love to believe this thing only happened because some overworked weapons designer in 1950's America was so tired he accidentally put his plans for a submarine and an ICBM in the same folder before submitting them.
If anyone other then Convair was responsible I would actually think that more likely. Problem is well Convair was crazy.
Was saying the same thing
I'm starting to think that Nick REALLY likes seaplane concepts (can't blame him, I like it too)
Its a great concept!
@@FoundAndExplained yes i like it
@@FoundAndExplained of course👍
@@FoundAndExplained do a video on the seaplane fighter jets. You could launch a squadron out of any River that's big enough for a landing and take off. Or or the ability to turn smaller vessels into effectively aircraft carriers.
It also keeps China, CCP at bay!@@FoundAndExplained
The closest thing to a real life Thunderbird 1 I've ever seen.
Wow, it's EXACTLY TB1. Nuclear powered ramjet rocket.
5...4....3...2...1! Thunderbirds are GO!
Agreed , and lends it self in concept to the Flying sub from voyage to the bottom of the sea
Atragon!
Thunder bird 1 but with nukes
Imagine being a plane carrying an anti submarine bomb, your flying to your target and then it jumps out of the water and engages you in a dogfight.
I would be laughing if that was a thing sounds funny as hell 😂.
Submarine Hunter: Target just ahead.
SubJet: *Jumps out water* out looking for me
Speaking strictly for myself I'd be shitting bricks...
And I thought the _underwater_ supersonic submarine concept was a crazy idea
The nuclear powered thing WAS CORRECT and NOT going to spew radiation everywhere unless damaged internally. The first generation nuclear power plants ran pretty similar but weren't allowed to get that hot (except for the Chernobyl accident which was a steam explosion).
Just don't know how many more mind-blowing planes we have yet to be seen
imagine seeing this and thinking it was a missle and going
"wo it missed us"
famous last words
Just tuned in - really appreciate the production values, makes the information much more digestible.
Oh those whacky 50's era designs of insanity, always fascinating to learn about.
Cheers for all the hard work 👍🍻
Dude thanks so much for your kind words!!
@@FoundAndExplained don't mention it man, credit where credit's due ! 👍🍻
Okay, know honest:
How much was the Ecstasy- and Cocaine-Consumption in the Design Bureaus to have such bonkers ideas?
Given that Cocaine was used like sugar not that long ago, I'd say about as much as mexico makes in a week
Wright Brothers flying a plane in 1903. Jets in combat in 1945. Supersonic in 1947. Mach 2 in 1953. Submarine nuke-driven in 1955. First Air-to-Air Missile in service 1956. First satellite in 1957. Man in space 1961. Aerospace and tech were going hard in 1961 and the money was available for wiener-measuring Cold War craziness. WHY NOT?
@@Zaprozhan Too bad the great advancements in aerospace tech have largely died out and its more inline with the tiny improvements of cars, trucks, ect, just immagine where we could be today if that wasnt the case.
Yes
Amphetamines. Amphetamine use went way up in the 50s and 60s, and the Air Force in particular used a ton of it (esp in WW2) for long missions. The same people who served in the war, who ran the military by the 60s
I'd like to see the documentation for this video. As an employee of General Dynamics Astronautics during that time frame, I worked on tracking and guidance of the Atlas missile which had it's first flight test in 1957, there was no need for such a weapon as described here. Astronautics shared a facility with Convair at Lindbergh field before fully moving to Kearny Mesa. Convair also had a major facility in Fort Worth, Texas. Beyond that, General Dynamics owned Electric Boar, the submarine builder, and any such underwater programs would have been originated there. This whole video bothers me.
Sure the original source for me is Aerospace Projects Review.
But here is what they have said on the matter
References:
“ANP Program Review,” ZP-313, Convair San Diego,
September 1960
“ANP New Naval Applications,” ZP-329, Convair San
Diego, March, 1961
“Identification of Certain Current Defense Problems and
Possible Means of Solution,” Institute for Defense Analyses
Advanced Research Projects Division, The Pentagon, Study
No. 1, 1959
@@FoundAndExplained I don't think Convair or Astronautics got involved beyond a simple discussion. What I can now disclose is a previously secret program that was into actual development before it was cancelled. It was called "Wizard" and was intended to be an anti-missile missile. That project was cancelled in the pre-design phase at Astronautics but there were several other related programs that are still classified to this day. I had actually been solicited by Astronautics when I was working at Bendix Pacific in North Hollywood. One of the programs at Bendix Pacific was what was then know as "The Standard Missile", an in-production ship to air defense missile, and I apparently had some skills that Astronautics needed. The video is very creative but doesn't represent what any engineer would suggest or implement. READ ON-
One far-out program in that same time frame was a nuclear-powered missile proposed by the General Atomics company in North San Diego. I had friends working on that program which proposed to use small atomic blasts to boost a missile. It never got beyond the discussion stage, just too radical. General Atomics, after a few ownership changes, has a very successful Aircraft Launch and Recovery system, EMALS, which uses electromagnetic rails to launch aircraft and retrieve them on aircraft carriers. Much more effective and space saving on the carrier compared to the steam catapults. One advantage is that the force can be adjusted for the specific aircraft and the force can be changed as the plane goes down the launch area. Energy is stored in large gyroscopes and some energy is recovered by the capture of a landing aircraft. Over 8,000 launches and captures have been executed on the USS Ford carrier. General Atomics first became successful by designing a fail-safe nuclear reactor, now available for experiments. You can find more by doing on-line searches.
I just remembered the name of the atomic rocket program. Project Orion. The actual project, initiated in 1958, was led by Ted Taylor at General Atomics and physicist Freeman Dyson, who at Taylor's request took a year away from the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton to work on the project.
@Don Williams 😂 I am studying engineering and I too, used to think that with unlimited Nuclear power, anything is possible. Just out of curiosity, that missile which was to be propelled using nuclear blasts, how was that even considered?😂
I think a much better way to harness Nuclear power was the NERVA program that NASA was working on. Basically, they were going to use a reactor with liquid hydrogen as a coolant. Any thoughts on that?
@@adityapande3084 I don't think the Orion project ever got near to conjuring up an actual missile. I would guess that the NERVA program would use hydrogen as a mass to eject, creating thrust, and not as a coolant. A bad choice in my opinion.
Convair had some crazy, advanced aircraft concepts. Really impressive
Using water as a means to solve the issue of getting a ramjet to operational speed is ingenious. Unfortunately, it only works for a *nuclear* ramjet. But hey, with the advancements in materials science they might be able to make it work using a heat exchanger.
I’ve got the two volumes on Convair Advanced and Secret projects.....and I’ve never heard of this one, thanks for the cool new info.
That nuclear reactor looks a lot like a SciFi fusion reactor ;P
5:01 … OH! This is SICK! 🔥
Mach 3, Nuclear, Convair... You got me. Great video mate
Newsflash: Convair out-Belkas Belka.
Another Newsflash : 70% of Convair employees are Belkan .
Convair then changes company name to Gründer Industries
Long live Belka
Torres would’ve succeeded if he had one of these
Great video as always Nick - would you happen to have any ūpcoming videos regarding SSTO spaceplane concepts or truly crazy things like that flying aircraft carrier?
Project Pluto did not have a crew aboard. It was automated. One of the proposals for Project Pluto was to allow it to keep flying, spreading radioactivity over enemy territory until the reactor broke up sufficiently that the trust would drop to a point where it would no longer fly.
Ngl, the coloring and the shape makes it look like a fricken sniper bullet shell
My favorite condiment channel uploads again 💜
if the exhaust wasn't radioactive and the seafloor was level this would be an amazing design.
The exhaust WASN'T radioactive. Nick knows NOTHING of nuclear technology to even assume it would be. This is exactly the same way that first generation nuclear power plants ran, just not allowed to get that hot (graphite rods).
Excellent stuff bro
Flying submarine, from Voyage to the bottom of the sea. Loved the show. Pity no one could survive the landings. 😒😄😄
Even as a Child I Ciringed watching the Cheif and XO fly into the Water at High angle.lol.
We all live in a Flying Submarine, Flying Submarine., Flying Submarine
These videos are always well put together
I think it’s now officially called a “TicTac”. Ha Ha
Lol k also though about the Recent uap Report. But the Tic tac didnt showed any signs of a Populsion system...
I thought Convair's Aerosub was wild, now I learn of this.
Another very interesting weapon that was never built thanks for sharing
Flying submarine? Like the one Scott Manley build in kerbal, right? 😆
it’s literally the rapier engine
Amazing how wild some of these concepts were before the missiles just got better and totally removed the need for the 'replacement'.
Probably the most unique concept i've seen
Let's not tell Elon Musk
@@richardscathouse No reason not to, just look at his failed projects such as the re-branded vacuum train.
@@73_65 😁😁
wait.
F l y i n g S u b m a r i n e s a r e n ' t a m e m e ?
Man. This channel is always keeps giving and it's solid stuff that I always don't expect!
Everyone in military industrial complex in the 50s and 60s was on amphetamines
A submersible Project Pluto, nice ☢️
Glorious!
WOW AMAZING
This is my favorite vehicle channel
*The 9M730 Burevestnik or Skyfall has a Nuclear Reactor for it's propussion*
Useful nuclear engines were developed in the early 60s
@@piotrtrebisz6602 Not failed, that's supposed to happen with an open reactor
@@richardscathouse en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyonoksa_radiation_accident
“The terrifying Flying Submarine”
Me: OH MY! THEY FLY NOW!
Fans: THEY FLY NOW?
F & E: THEY FLY NOW!
Actually a nuclear ramjet can be built so negligible radiation escapes the reactor. The trick is simple to make the casing of the fuel rods thicker.
There where still issues with the air cooled nuclear reaktors (some of the the first nuclear reaktors where air cooled) czcams.com/video/j5wZoswSNwc/video.html
Nice 👌 video
9 months, 9 people living in a vertical tube, translating operationally horizontally in minutes. There is a LOT of complexity to make that functional. Then there is the problem of selecting a suitable launch site, where you can remain vertical amid currents, terrain and biologic hazards. Then there is the problem of selecting a recovery site with all the same problems.
I just cant wrap my mind around how they intended to construct the hull of such a craft. Submarines are the only armored combat ships left as they need to resist the pressures of the deep, while aircrafts typically are built as light as possible, just how much thrust do you need to keep such a ship airborne? A ramjet also only works when the engine has sufficient airflow, typically requiring a missile/craft to already fly faster than mach 1, how did they intend to accelerate to that speed, from the water no less, prior to reach critical speed for the ramjet?
Maybe they were planning on using water in the scramjet first then transition to the atmosphere. Drag would no doubt be a problem but, hell, you have free infinite fuel that you just have to heat up into plasma. A hot nuke would do the trick but it's gonna turn the ocean into gumbo before it reaches transition velocity!
You REALLY DON'T get nuclear technology do you. It would run from thermal expansion, much the same as aircraft today. Dramatic heat would do it. Also, if nick thinks it was going to make everything radioactive he obviously has ZERO clue EITHER. Because this is much the same as first generation nuclear power plants. Realize that both yhe Americans AND the soviets later worked on nuclear powered aircraft engines. The Americans got to the point of getting individual components to work.
2:47 That Secret pen holder on desk...!!
You took the words from my mouth!! Enter "the thunderbirds" right from the tv screens to reality! I'm guessing , even with the flaws , they created it , and they're sitting on the ocean floor somewhere, changing out crews , resupplying etc !!
Don't you just love when your engine makes everything uninhabitable after flying over it
TOTAL BS. This is the same way that first generation nuclear power plants ran. Nick obviously has zero idea of nuclear technology. The Americans and soviets BOTH worked on nuclear powered aircraft engines. The Americans had individual components of the engine working on their own.
This. Is. Poggers.
Yep. Where do you start. What a fantastic and crazy idea. Dropping anything at mach 4 (from the top) sounds like suicide. I think you covered some of the other flaws but still wow!
The Convair Nuclear Submersible...
That doesn't sound so bad.
...Ramjet
There we go.
Good👍
Is it coated in aerogel?
Does it use a desal, electrolysis, and a compression system for its HH, and O rocket chamber?
Somebody has reading " Master of the word "by Jules Verne, in the 60"th, but forget to add wheels to roll on the ground too.
With Miniring Tokamak would be probably possible...
And still it's a dream of a vehicle...
Imagine be able to flying in and out from the ocean...
Super fast underwater base connection .
4:03 how does the gold colour scheme prevent it from breaking up in high speed???
Probably made out of a metal with better thermal properties?
looks cooler
@sourav jaiswal Not gold
This is some batshit version of brass sort of
@@daltonmojica Russia had most of the gold at that time ..imagine getting shot by a missile plane made out of gold ,supplied by you 😂😂
@@AnkitKumar-fo2iz That’s exactly what the US did with the SR-71. Except it was Titanium, and no missiles involved.
Ten patrons! Hail Nick!
Damnit, had to mutch fun watching shorts to the point i missed this premier
Shorts arent fun
@@ADogNamedStay well i watched the good ones
Not sure how anyone could have fun with shorts. All of them being portrait/vertical are enough for me to seem anything other than trash. CZcams's shitty attempt to mimic TikTok
@@Eidolon1andOnly well not for me i guess
Project Pluto 2: Electric Boogaloo
I'm nitpicking, but you forgot to paint Kaliningrad Oblast as part of USSR at 0:16.
at 1:53 please make a video about those two aircrats because they are sick
Not sure of the point of it.
In 1960 they had the submarine launched "UGM-27 Polaris" ICBM.
It launch from 50 ft under water and traveled at 6000 mph to orbit and once in orbit it went 15,000 mph before releasing it H-Bomb warhead.
The Polaris was a submarine for 50 ft of underwater travel at launch.
I would like to hear more about the soviet nuclear powered mole submarine, it used a nuclear reactor to melt the solid rock, it was a submarine for land to dig under the earth into the enemies territory and then deposit a nuclear bomb and leave. The bomb could stay there for an indefinite amount of time till needed, no need for ballistic missiles or any of that when you already have your nukes secretly placed at their targets
Convair had the NB-36
Flying reactor concept.
They actually built a hangar and runway at
The test site at Idaho falls
As I recall there's a NERVA carcass parked
There too.
Truly thankful we never built these concepts.
NERVA well,maybe.
From my understanding the problem is more that they needed more R&D, not that they couldnt have been made safe.
The idea reminds me to the Swordfish of the Blake and Mortimer comics
With a bit of work you could use this as a space craft, mainly to get people to and from space.
Give the plan to SpaceX! It could probably be built in two weeks and cheaper!
It took 15 years for SpaceX to make a first manned Crew Dragon flight after they started developing the capsule. This thing is, 60 years after, still beyond what we can do with tech.
I'm actually the most shocked about how the propulsion can work properly. Like literal water/air going into the engine and getting heated so much by nuclear reactors that the exhaust could propel it up to Mach 4? Sounds extremely sci-fi to me.
Will you be making videos on Soviet Technologies ?? Especially the Ekranoplan ??
Hallochen
Alles Zukunft Musik. NOCH.!!
Alles schon mal da gewesen. Schon mal was von Projekt Pluto gehört?
Wenn sie die Strahlung in Griff bekommen, dann kann das System gefährlich werden. Gruss aus Köln Kalli.
Me: Mom, can we get PROJECT PLUTO?
Mom: We have PROJECT PLUTO at home.
PROJECT PLUTO at home:
" Uh, M..Mr. Tracy?...I..I...think I have another Thunderbird craft for you!"
7:16 I wonder who used same grid fins on rocket
In the channel section there is no Direct to watch second channel
it may be a lesser used feature but at least 30% check it
an airborne submarine and a underwater plane?
cool
The lack of this channel's technical knowledge is the most astounding aspect of this video.
hey man, some of these ideas are totally unrealistic but its the actual idea from the time. stuff we know NOW is unfeasible, back in the 50s was a different story.
@@FoundAndExplained Hey man, I wasn't referring to the content. I was referring to you.
How do you have so many designs I've never heard of?
Convair seemed to build a lot of crazy shit :D
is there a pumpscramjet?
The Flying Submarine...would be a good name for a Pub
I keep expecting every time I see the intro, that you will have renamed the channel Found and exPLANEd
Hmmm we WILL see an unmanned version soon
Haha rocket go
* nooooooom *
The Russians: We have Ekranoplane!
Нужная вещь, нужная...
well, that will be a hard one to build on simpleplanes
Sounds like the tick tack that commander frasier seen😂
This concept is absolutely bonkers, but a variant might have some merit. Instead of nuclear power, it's possible to design a water breathing ramjet that burns magnesium. Or a magnesium/aluminum mix.
Or rather than a ramjet, a magnesium-water rocket that uses refillable sea water tanks. That way, the vehicle doesn't need a fancy water breathing ramjet intake, and it spends minimal time underwater boosting up to speed.
Such a magnesium-water rocket plane might be a radical alternative to carrier jets. Instead of aircraft carriers, you have smaller ships and/or subs which resupply the rocket planes with magnesium fuel and weapons pods. Unlike a normal carrier jet that simply flies level in the air, these magnesium-water rocket planes would make successive boost-glide hops.
A giant supercharged water rocket!
You Know, When Alicorn is not that much, you need flying submarine, torez is proud.
I wonder if an autonomous form of this (with different propulsion) would be possible/applicable today. Basically autonomous nuclear ballistic subs with better inland capabilities
Well I mean there ARE navy water to air missiles...
Thunderbirds are Go much? Or should I be thinking SHIELD? Or maybe SPECTRE ...
Little thay people knew, it's a concept very close to a perfect SSToL craft for orbital flights, just amagine it in the ratio scale of the Sea dragon rocket, or Starship, mix breeding aqua-jet blades, to jet & ramjet convertion, before exo rocket potent boosters fuel, phase versus stages.
@ 9:51 !Ha!
‘Cigar shaped object’ lolz
When submerged the ballast tanks would already be full, you don't need to pressurize, the water falls in
Seems like something else was just acknowledged for having traveled in multiple atmospheric conditions ! ( air, water, and space) so we now have some serious functional laser's already deployed with the navy, trans-medium transportation or vehicles,
Ok... if I was looking at super weapons at the time this would be my number one choice.
why not put hydrofoils on a sub so that it could surface and rise out of the water to get to a location quickly to submerge. it could retract to act as wings to help steer underwater but might also need to have a swept wing sort of system to keep from creating allot of bubbles underwater??
ok ok, make the hydrofoil part a separate craft, that can link with the sub... that way it could redeploy to another sub and bring it forward as well, kind of like a taxi service :D so the normal sub would not have to worry about bubbles from it, thou the primary base for it could still be like a catamaran that was for ballast tanks to get under the sub in order to lock on and then empty the tanks to raise it above the surface. the sub would still need to be safe enough that if the system failed that it could safely re-enter the water without risk to crew, ship and cargo.
Why were convair black projects so batshit insane?
Now that is a mystery video I can't explain :)
Imagine if all were built