I have heard that the interesting thing about those reactors designed for the nuclear aircraft was that they had a positive alpha (i.e., positive reactivity feedback for increasing reactor power). You couldn’t license one of those today (for good reason). The other was that the final design had so much shielding there was much space of lift capacity left for cargo. Not terribly practical on balance.
There was a huge battle between Admiral Rickover and General LeMay over who would control and deliver our nuclear arsenal.
The Nuclear Subs with their missiles basically killed off the research into the nuclear airplane... not that sinking that crazy idea was a bad thing.
I didn’t know the Russian’s had that thing that started this thread. I would love for Mr. Boyd to know about it.