Aircraft Penetration of Clouds Generated by Nuclear Bursts
Abstract
Aircraft penetrating radioactive dust clouds are exposed to an environment which could prove to be mission crippling. The performances of the crew of the aircraft, the mission critical electronics equipment, and/or the engines could be degraded sufficiently to compromise the mission completion capability of the aircraft. A detailed examination of the hazards associated with cloud penetrations has been performed. It was found that the major hazards to the crew consist of the ionizing doses and dose rates from being surrounded by the radioactive cloud and from dust which accumulates in the cockpit during penetration, and the radiation burns of skin in direct contact with the dust. The major hazard to electronics equipment is due to the dose accumulated from dust accumulated in the plenum chambers of black boxes which are cooled by an open cycle process. It is shown that significant protection can be provided for the crew and avionics equipment by the installation of filters. General techniques are presented for selecting filter design criteria for the crew and equipment environment control systems. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 1974
- Accession Number
- ADA000419
Entities
People
- George D. Arnett
- Rayford P. Patrick
- William A. Yingling
Organizations
- Air Force Research Laboratory