To produce direct thrust, a magnetic field would form the pusher plate.
The bombs had to be launched behind the pusher plate fast enough to explode 20 to 30 m beyond it every 1.1 seconds or so.
At that point spalling may occur, damaging the pusher plate.
However, experiments were designed to test pusher plates in nuclear fireballs.
Long-term tests of pusher plates could occur in space.
Work shut down with the main body and most of the shock absorbing system almost complete, still no sign of the massive pusher plate.
Major components like the pusher plate and the fuel magazine frame were manufactured on Earth, by Boeing.
Three hundred microexplosions each second hurled energy against the pusher plate.
I was thinking more of a hugely tough soccer ball or cube of pusher plates.
It consists of a pusher plate attached to shaft on which the nylon bell can move freely.