This Week in History: Nuclear-powered aircraft program begins Published Sept. 5, 2012 KIRTLAND AFB, N.M. -- In 1946, the Air Force and the Atomic Energy Commission began studies for the nuclear-powered aircraft program. On Sept. 5, 1951, Convair was awarded a contract for two B-36 test aircraft and built one. A B-36 that had been damaged in a tornado at Carswell AFB, Texas, on Sept. 1, 1952, was modified as the test aircraft for the program. It was redesignated the XB-36H, then the NB-36H, and was modified to carry a 3-megawatt, air-cooled aircraft shield test nuclear reactor in its bomb bay. The reactor was operational but did not power the plane. Its sole purpose was to investigate the effect of radiation on aircraft systems. To shield the flight crew, the nose section of the aircraft was modified to include a lead and rubber shield. The standard windshield was replaced with one made of six-inch thick acrylic. The aircraft completed 47 test flights and 215 flight hours, during 89 of which the reactorwas operated, between July 1955 and March 1957, over New Mexico and Texas. The NB-36H was scrapped at Fort Worth in 1958 and the nuclear-powered aircraft program was abandoned in 1961.