Trial Cruise

On the eve of the launching of the atomic submarine Nautilus, Vermont's Republican Senator Ralph E. Flanders, member of the Armed Services Committee, returned to Washington from Arco, Idaho, where the prototype of the submarine's reactor has been under test. Brimming with nuclear enthusiasm, he rushed to tell the President what he had seen.

Under the Senator's critical eyes, the landlocked submarine on the Idaho desert (see cut) made a simulated cruise. For four days it steamed at full speed while the energy in its propeller shaft, was absorbed by a pumplike water brake. Since the "fire" in its reactor used no air, it could have been steaming hundreds of feet under the surface of the sea. If the test had been run with the real Nautilus, she could have cruised submerged from Halifax to Liverpool (2,514 nautical miles) in 96 hours. Average speed (probably conservatively stated): 26 knots.

Senator Flanders' conclusion: nuclear propulsion for both submarines and surface vessels "is really here."

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