Strawberry Posted November 13, 2022 Share Posted November 13, 2022 This would be a later game item that would be a heavily powerful engine. Instead of using fuel and air for its airbreathing mode, it would just run the air through a nuclear reactor similar to project pluto. This would allow it to get great efficiencies in atmosphere at super/hypersonic speeds, and fly with basically no fuel needed. This engine can swap to a mode similar to a NERV engine, to where it runs on liquid fuel only instead. The upsides of this engine would be incredible isp, high in atmosphere thrust and near infinite fuel for air breathing. The downsides of this engine would be high mass, large size, and low thrust in space. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vortygont Posted November 13, 2022 Share Posted November 13, 2022 Sounds like imbalanced. Seen this idea a few times, are there any design challenges and weaknesses with this engine? What technologies can it be ranked with in the technology tree? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strawberry Posted November 13, 2022 Author Share Posted November 13, 2022 It's definitely overall stronger then RAPIER but that isnt a bad thing, as it requires more technology and is more expensive resource wise. Itll be competing with metallic hydrogen jets which would be a lot more lightweight and compact. The engine could be given a long shape and/or radial attachment only to make it harder to design a plane around. It should definitely be something you unlock late in the game, like right before you unlock metallic hydrogen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magnemoe Posted November 14, 2022 Share Posted November 14, 2022 Such an engine is plausible, yes its very radioactive so shielding the crew would be an problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ember12 Posted November 14, 2022 Share Posted November 14, 2022 7 hours ago, magnemoe said: Such an engine is plausible, yes its very radioactive so shielding the crew would be an problem. Of course this also applies to NERVA's and Orion drives. I think that in addition to this nuclear RAPIER, a nuclear turbojet would be great as something that can run for weeks or months without a refuel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magnemoe Posted November 14, 2022 Share Posted November 14, 2022 2 minutes ago, Ember12 said: Of course this also applies to NERVA's and Orion drives. I think that in addition to this nuclear RAPIER, a nuclear turbojet would be great as something that can run for weeks or months without a refuel. True, but in space you can add an truss to put the engine far from the crew. Orion also has the benefit of not being very mass limited. Some added problem with nuclear aircraft was that they will make the exhaust radioactive unless you used an heat exchanger, Its very hard to service the aircraft because the reactor is just shielded towards the cockpit and it will make an radioactive mess then one crashes. But on Eve you are not very concerned about any of that. An turbojet is a bit simpler, don't think the heat exchanger would work well for an rocket. Nuclear thermal engines are far less of an radiation issue as core is just highly enriched uranium until you start it and run it for some time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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