a e r o n a u t i c s u n d e r n a s a : 19 5 8 - P r e s e n t
Enter the Lifting Body That said, one of the agency’s most inventive aeronautical research efforts of the 1960s and 1970s, NASA’s Lifting Body Vehicles Research Program, was the opposite of a large project in its origins. It was largely driven from the ground up by enthusiastic engineers such as R. Dale Reed at the Flight Research Center (now Armstrong Research Center) in California. Using the motto, “Don’t be rescued from outer space – fly back in style,” Reed and his colleagues pushed for wingless lifting body designs first conceptualized at the Ames Aeronautical Laboratory
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– utilizing air flowing over a fuselage to generate lift – that would enable a spacecraft to fly through the atmosphere to a controlled landing on an airstrip rather than parachute back to an ocean splashdown, as was the case during the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. Encouraged by Reed’s passion, Center Director Paul Bikle approved discretionary funding to construct
NASA photo
working in conjunction with subcontractors. With big projects came big money and big management. This was in marked contrast to the lone researcher working on a topic of personal interest on bootstrapped wind tunnel time.” Of course the downside of this approach was that large aeronautics projects had to compete with the more amply funded space projects, and in many cases, the funding was not always there.
M Wingless lifting body aircraft sitting on Rogers Dry Lake at what is now NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center. From left to right are the X-24A, M2-F3, and the HL-10. The lifting body aircraft studied the feasibility of maneuvering and landing an aerodynamic craft designed for reentry from space. These lifting bodies were air launched by a B-52 mother ship, then flew powered by their own rocket engines before making an unpowered approach and landing. They helped validate the concept that a space shuttle could make accurate landings without power. The X-24A flew from April 17, 1969, to June 4, 1971. The M2-F3 flew from June 2, 1970, until Dec. 20, 1972. The HL-10 flew from Dec. 22, 1966, until July 17, 1970, and logged the highest and fastest records in the lifting body program. All derived from the pioneering M2-F1, built of plywood by volunteers.