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NASA Lifting Body
HL-10 Lifting Body

HL-10 Lifting Body
HL-10 Lifting Body with B-52 and Test Pilot Dana
Credit: NASA
NASA's Ames Research Center and Langley had promoted the idea of 'lifting bodies', rounded half-cones, for use as manned recoverable spacecraft. These provided lift for maneuver and recovery at an airfield after re-entry from orbit.

The original M2-F1 was a plywood glider towed from pickup trucks and C-47 transports as part of an 'in house' NASA Edwards project in 1963. Results were encouraging, and NASA contracted Northrop to build, at cut-rate prices, two rocket-powered lifting bodies that would be air-dropped from a B-52 bomber to explore the handling qualities of the two competing configurations. The M2-F2 was a 'flying bathtub' with a rounded belly / flat top layout. The M2-F2 crashed on 10 May 1967, seriously injuring the test pilot (the footage became familiar to millions when it was used in the opening credits of the television series 'The Six Million Dollar Man'). The crashed M2-F2 was rebuilt as the M2-F3 with enlarged vertical stabilizers. Maximum speed achieved was Mach 1.6, top altitude 21,800 m. The final X-30 National Aerospace Plane configuration seemed to owe much to the M2.

The HL-10, with a flat bottom and rounded dorsal body, was the favored lifting body configuration of NASA Langley. It reached Mach 1.86 and 27,700 m during its flight test. This configuration was found to be the best of the lifting bodies, and it was used in several of the orbiter proposals in NASA's Phase A and Phase B shuttle design studies. It is also very similar to the winning X-33 configuration proposed by the Lockheed. Purportedly an unmanned test vehicle of this design was tested at orbital speeds by the US Air Force in a black Lockheed Skunk Work's project, possibly on two Titan 3B / Agena D launches in 1972.

Family: Spaceplane. Country: USA.
Photo Gallery
HL-10 Lifting BodyHL-10 Lifting Body
Credit: NASA
HL-10HL-10
Three view of the HL-10, the favoured lifting body configuration of NASA's Langley. This configuration was found to be the best of the lifting bodies.
Credit: © Mark Wade
M2F1 Lifting BodyM2F1 Lifting Body
The M2-F1 was the first lifting body configuration tested. This glider was made from plywood. It was later succeeded by the M2-F2 metal version.
Credit: NASA
M2F2 Lifting BodyM2F2 Lifting Body
M2F2 Lifting Body with F-104 Chase Plane
Credit: NASA
M2F3 Lifting BodyM2F3 Lifting Body
M2F3 Lifting Body Launch from B-52
Credit: NASA
Lifting BodiesLifting Bodies
Manned Lifting Bodies
Credit: NASA
M2-F3M2-F3
Credit: © Mark Wade
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