On Aug. 16, 1963, NASA’s M2-F1 plane prototype made its first glide flight.
This wingless plane sort of seemed like a flying bathtub. NASA made it to check a brand new idea referred to as the lifting physique, which was an unpowered glider that supplied another solution to return piloted spacecraft to Earth. As an alternative of pummeling out of the sky in a ballistic reentry, the lifting physique landed type of like an airplane.
For its first take a look at flight, the M2-F1 was towed 5,200 toes into the air by a C-47 Skytrain after which launched. Check pilot Milt Thompson was within the cockpit, and he introduced the glider in for a clean touchdown in California after a two-minute descent.
Why it mattered
The success of M2-F1’s first glide flight proved a wingless lifting-body plane might be managed and landed safely. The introduction of a second potential methodology of returning astronauts from space was an important consideration throughout a time when NASA was racing against the Soviet Union for entry to house and, in the end, the moon.
Although NASA opted for the acquainted capsule and warmth protect design used through the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo applications, the M2-F1 and its subsequent take a look at flights paved the way in which for NASA’s continued analysis into lifting-bodies, and led to the event of a whole household of lifting-body take a look at automobiles just like the M2-F2, M2-F3, HL-10, and the U.S. Air Power’s X-24A and X-24B, which executed lifting-body flights at a lot larger speeds and altitudes.
Finally, information from these applications was utilized to the event of the space shuttle, and the real-life apply of touchdown a spacecraft again on Earth the identical manner you’d an airplane.
