An Examination of the RDA Briefing "Late-Time Nuclear Dust-Cloud Environments. An Emerging Issue for Air-Breathing Vehicles".
Abstract
The issue of nuclear dust being a threat to strategic aircraft has been raised by RDA. Their briefing (attachment 4) supports this by drawing an analogy to the recent Mt. St. Helens eruptions and resulting aircraft incidents. This paper deals with the RDA's primary concern, engine damage tolerance. Though preliminary, it gives a feel for how the key ingredients of particle size, density and engine debris ingestion interact. Review of the Mt. St. Helens aircraft incidents revealed only one serious engine ingestion problem, that of a L-1OO turboprop (C-i 30 variant) which encountered heavy volcanic dust concentrations after the first eruption. Engine debris ingestion, of any type, requires a definition of debris size and density vs time. Once defined, those values can be compared against the aircraft engine's specification for ingestion tolerance. All of the current strategic aircraft engines analyzed were found capable of withstanding the RDA predicted levels of nuclear dust size and density (assuming the aircraft avoided all nuclear debris for at least 15 minutes after detonation). The AGM-86B ALCM engine during actual sand ingestion testing, was able to pass specification levels after ingesting twice the specified sand density levels.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 20, 1980
- Accession Number
- ADA366243
Entities
Organizations
- United States Department of the Air Force