Lockheed CL-1201 theory

[Helperman]

Note that this is probably just a wild theory and i don't have evidence real, but.
Well, let me start with the sort of evidence i do have. I read the wikipedia entry for it, and i noticed something weird. It's end result is unkown. That is strange because all similar projects, including other ones that didnt get off drawing board, got a clear shutdown because of budget concerns and the inconvienience of nuclear planes. The fact that the exception is the most audacious feels weird.
Also, though the designs we have are a bit unrealistic, there is evidence of a third variant in that the omes we do have skip a number, and maybe the unkown version was more plausible and got built. Also, even if it didnt get made, maybe some breakthrough was discovered.
So thus, maybe the reason we dont know the end result is because that end result wasn't failure.

[quintessentone]

In the end, the CL-1201 project didn’t get any further thanks to its cost, and what could have been has now faded into history.
--------In March of 1997, there was a series of widely sighted UFO objects across Arizona, Nevada and Mexico dubbed the Phoenix Lights. witnesses described the object as a giant flying V that was bigger than a 747 and sounded like the gushing wind. Despite being nighttime, witnesses saw several lights like those found on aircraft, and the object was huge it visibly hid the stars in the sky.
 
UFO experts suggested that this object would have been at least a mile wide and fits the description of the CL-1201 pretty well. After all, they never did reveal what the 2nd version of the CL-1201 was designed for.

Years later in 1997 a Phoenix city councilwoman launched an investigation into the event, said that of the over 700 witnesses she interviewed about the lights said that “The government never interviewed – even one”.

https://foundandexplained.com/2021/05/01...t-cl-1201/

It makes sense to me that just reading some of the design elements that the cost to build it would be insane back then.

However, I did read some time ago that nuclear reactors can now be built to much smaller sizes, so maybe this is where or why the end result was not a failure...maybe it's a work in progress (?)

[Zaphod58]

The end result was failure. The funding and design study was paid for by Lockheed, not the Pentagon. Internal studies don't always have clear results shown when they're shut down, because they don't have to justify the spending to the public.