Nathan Radke

It was just a little guy out there.

And he was named after a cartoon dog as far as we knew when we were kids.

Exactly right.

Okay.

Project Pluto.

Right.

So back in 1957, the American government is trying to figure out how do we get a nuclear warhead to Moscow?

This is before ICBM.

So you had to use old fashioned bombers like we were talking about before and bombers can get shot down.

So they came up with a plan.

build a pilotless supersonic aircraft with a nuclear engine.

So the engine itself was nuclear.

And because it's a nuclear engine, it could generate impressive high velocities.

It could fly for days and days and days without running out of fuel.

Now, this aircraft, it wouldn't have a pilot.

It would be very large.

It would fly at treetop level at three times the speed of sound.

Now, that means that the shockwave alone at that height, at that speed, the sonic booms created would basically squish you.

So this thing could just fly around for days and days and days, squishing everything that it flew over.

Okay.