The Convair XAB-1 “Beta-1” was a 1950s Cold War concept aircraft created by Convair, a major U.S. aircraft manufacturer, but it was never built or flown. It was a speculative design for a nuclear-powered strategic bomber, intended to have extremely long endurance by using atomic power during cruise flight, with conventional jet engines for takeoff and landing. To reduce radiation exposure, the design featured a long fuselage separating the crew from the proposed reactor engines, and some versions included ideas such as wing-mounted nuclear engines and parasite escort fighters. The XAB-1 remained a paper study only, as nuclear propulsion for aircraft proved too dangerous and impractical, and it is best known today through plastic model kits representing this bold but unrealized vision of atomic-age aviation.