Vought SLAM / PLUTO

fantastic find
ca it be, this animation was made by Disney ?
they made allot of this work for Companies
 
Nuke engine

Found this Project Pluto entailed the design and testing of a nuclear ramjet engine (shown here) for low-flying, supersonic cruise missiles that could stay aloft for hours. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory designed and built two Tory II-A test reactors (adjacent photo) to demonstrate feasibility. A Tory II-C flight-engine prototype was also built. All six tests of the reactors were successful.
 

Attachments

  • Nuke engine.jpg
    Nuke engine.jpg
    195.3 KB · Views: 1,040
I absolutely love this piece of kit. It only demonstrates how far the US was willing to go to develop more and more elaborate methods of utterly demolishing the Communist threat back in those days. I mean, how much more insane can one get than by using a direct cycle nuclear ramjet that probably would have triggered a meltdown upon crashing once the payload was delivered? :eek:

Thanks for posting that video Boxman. It was quite informative!
 
I wonder how/where training with this weapon would have occurred? Afterall, no one would want this nuclear powered missile flying overhead nor impacting anywhere near them.
 
<shudder>The commentary states initial tests would have been made with chemical fuel. Training with a live reactor sounds *scary*. Nice find.</shudder>
 
Ah much simpler times, "The Communist expansion agenda" so let's build big giant nukes. No whining and apologizing just defending the nation.
 
Lovely promotional desk model of the Pluto missile from Vought Aeronautics.
One of these models was given to every potential Pluto customer.
 

Attachments

  • Vought Pluto (SLAM) 02.jpg
    Vought Pluto (SLAM) 02.jpg
    33.4 KB · Views: 746
Any papers on a variant of this modified as a Jupiter or Venus flyer?
 
sferrin said:
Re: Project SLAM

aemann said:
Another idea was to fly it up and down, like mowing the lawn, crushing everything unhardened in it's path.
Click to expand...

There was even a sci-fi movie out back then that had an alien spaceship (I think, it was a while ago) flying 4000 mph round and round the world destroying everything with shock wave and radiation. I remember they showed them firing a pair of Nike Ajaxs that missed and I think they eventually ended up nuking it. As I recall the ship looked like they ripped it off from the 30's Buck Rogers.
Click to expand...
The film was called "The lost missile".
 
Has it been revealed what the warheads would've been carried? I remember reading somewhere years ago that the planned warheads was the W28 in a suitable ballistic-casing.
 
Looks like just another classic fearmongering make believe cold war bogaboo concept to me. Ahh, simpler times...
 
Last edited:
It has just occurred to me that in July this year it will be the 80th anniversary of the Trinity nuclear-test at Alamogordo and the following August the 80th anniversary of the first and only combat use of nuclear-weapons.
 
bobbymike said:
How come it’s seems we were doing way cooker stuff 60-70 years ago?
Click to expand...
it was not "cooler" it was consider as necessity to build a weapon system, that put fear in mind of enemy.
SLAM was Deterrence/Retaliatory weapon. more like a Doomsday Weapon...
 
Michel Van said:
back to SLAM was there ever a Soviet version of SLAM ?
Click to expand...
There's also a new Russian one, the Skyfall cruise missile...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9M730_Burevestnik


NMaude said:
Has it been revealed what the warheads would've been carried? I remember reading somewhere years ago that the planned warheads was the W28 in a suitable ballistic-casing.
Click to expand...
Couldn't have been a W28, those are ~1700lbs not 350lbs.

I'd suspect something more like a W50 (Nike-Zeus and Pershing) or W58 (Polaris A3).

You're not getting megatons out of 350lbs.

Edit: and it may have been me suggesting W28s, as I was under the impression that SLAM was packing megaton-class "submunitions" and said that SLAM et sim would have been huge in order to carry 16x W28s. After all, the W28 is the warhead the AGM-28 Hound Dog missile carries.

Edit2: I may have pulled the idea of SLAM carrying multiple megaton warheads from that Stross short story at:
https://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/colderwar.htm
 
Last edited:
RELATED ARTICLES

AVIATION WEEK
MARCH 2, 1959
"Lack of Engineering Data Delays Nuclear Ramjet"
Page: 38 - 39
- Early Nuclear Ramjet Artist's Conceptions

AVIATION WEEK
OCTOBER 5, 1959
PAGE: 27
"CHANCE VOUGHT CONFIRMS SLAM CONTRACT"
-- SLAM - LING-TEMCO VOUGHT
-- BIG STICK - CONVAIR
-- BOLO - NORTH AMERICAN AVIATION

AVIATION WEEK
DECEMBER 7, 1959
"THIS IS THE RAMJET"
Page: 94 - 95
- MARQUARDT AD

AVIATION WEEK
JANUARY 16, 1961
"Increased Potential Spurs Pluto Research"
Page: 74 -75
- Early Nuclear Ramjet Artist's Conceptions

WESTERN AVIATION
MISSILE AND SPACE INDUSTRIES
DECEMBER 1960
VOLUME 40, NUMBER 12
PAGE: 21-22, 68
"ON-THE-DECK" NUCLEAR RAMJETS MAY HOLD FUTURE DETERRENT KEY
(Interview with Roy E. Marquardt)
-----------
-"It (PLUTO) could fly bombardement, reconnaissance and logistics support missions."
-"I can see PLUTO used in the forestry service armed wit infra-red devices for an airborne alert against fire."
-----------
 

Attachments

  • 19750064630_1975064630.pdf
    727 KB · Views: 21
  • 19750064631_1975064631.pdf
    625.8 KB · Views: 18
  • 19750064632_1975064632.pdf
    554.5 KB · Views: 17
  • 19750064633_1975064633.pdf
    1.4 MB · Views: 19
  • 19750064634_1975064634.pdf
    600.6 KB · Views: 16
  • 19750064635_1975064635.pdf
    1.2 MB · Views: 11
  • 19750064636_1975064636.pdf
    701.9 KB · Views: 18
  • 19750064637_1975064637.pdf
    1.1 MB · Views: 13
  • 19750064638_1975064638.pdf
    1.9 MB · Views: 13
  • 19750064639_1975064639.pdf
    874.1 KB · Views: 24
  • 19750064629_1975064629.pdf
    471.2 KB · Views: 37
  • 19750064628_1975064628.pdf
    955 KB · Views: 13
  • 19750064627_1975064627.pdf
    1.2 MB · Views: 15
  • 0764pluto.pdf
    1.4 MB · Views: 14
  • 19750064618_1975064618.pdf
    1.2 MB · Views: 15
  • 19750064619_1975064619.pdf
    613.5 KB · Views: 12
  • 19750064620_1975064620.pdf
    1.2 MB · Views: 11
  • 19750064621_1975064621.pdf
    899.5 KB · Views: 12
  • 19750064622_1975064622.pdf
    644.7 KB · Views: 11
  • 19750064623_1975064623.pdf
    653.6 KB · Views: 11
  • 19750064624_1975064624.pdf
    1.2 MB · Views: 14
  • 19750064625_1975064625.pdf
    765.7 KB · Views: 12
  • 19750064626_1975064626.pdf
    920 KB · Views: 13
Last edited:
I figure this should probably go here
The Tory IIC nuclear ramjet
And heres a bizarre one,a Bendix advertisement referencing the work done by the company on this monster.....er.....I mean engineering marvel.
 

Attachments

  • L-63-6601_Pluto_SLAM_LASV_Test_198_1963-500x390.jpg
    L-63-6601_Pluto_SLAM_LASV_Test_198_1963-500x390.jpg
    17.9 KB · Views: 27
  • Schematic_cross-section_of_Tory_reactor-500x275.png
    Schematic_cross-section_of_Tory_reactor-500x275.png
    47.5 KB · Views: 29
  • Tory-IIC_at_Jackass_flats.jpg
    Tory-IIC_at_Jackass_flats.jpg
    4.4 MB · Views: 33
  • Bendix-1964-SA-v211i1-p137-nuclear-control-Tory-iic-ramjet-reactor-714x1024.jpg
    Bendix-1964-SA-v211i1-p137-nuclear-control-Tory-iic-ramjet-reactor-714x1024.jpg
    145.1 KB · Views: 30
Last edited by a moderator:
Sineva said:
I figure this should probably go here
The Tory IIC nuclear ramjet
And heres a bizarre one,a Bendix advertisement referencing the work done by the company on this monster.....er.....I mean engineering marvel.
Click to expand...
To think they actually ran a 37,000lb thrust nuclear ramjet for five minutes in the test cell boggles the mind.
 
Scott Kenny said:
Jackass Flats is in the middle of nowhere, it was safe enough.
Click to expand...
That wasn't my point. I'm not one of those who are terrified of nuclear power and data centers. It boggles my mind because we wanted to blaze unknown territory so we did. That doesn't happen much anymore. Today something with that many unknowns would get cancelled before the challenge coins were handed out.
 

Similar threads

Back
Top Bottom