Dryden Home > Collections > Photo Home > M2-F1 Aircraft > Photo # EC64-404 |
M2-F1 in flight | ||
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Photo Number: | EC64-404 | |
Photo Date: | August 28, 1964 | |
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Formats: | 539x480 JPEG Image (87 KBytes) 1150x1024 JPEG Image (480 KBytes) 3000x2670 JPEG Image (4,917 KBytes) |
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Photo Description: |
The M2-F1 Lifting Body is seen here under tow by an unseen C-47 at the NASA Flight Research Center (later redesignated the Dryden Flight Research Center), Edwards, California. The low-cost vehicle was the first piloted lifting body to be test flown. The lifting-body concept originated in the mid-1950s at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics' Ames Aeronautical Laboratory, Mountain View California. By February 1962, a series of possible shapes had been developed, and R. Dale Reed was working to gain support for a research vehicle. | |
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Project Description: |
The wingless, lifting body aircraft design was initially conceived as a means of landing an aircraft horizontally after atmospheric reentry. The absence of wings would make the extreme heat of re-entry less damaging to the vehicle. In 1962, Dryden management approved a program to build a lightweight, unpowered lifting body as a prototype to flight test the wingless concept. It would look like a "flying bathtub," and was designated the M2-F1, the "M" referring to "manned" and "F" referring to "flight" version. It featured a plywood shell placed over a tubular steel frame crafted at Dryden. Construction was completed in 1963.
The first flight tests of the M2-F1 were over Rogers Dry Lake at the end of a tow rope attached to a hopped-up Pontiac convertible driven at speeds up to about 120 mph. These initial tests produced enough flight data about the M2-F1 to proceed with flights behind a NASA C-47 tow plane at greater altitudes. The C-47 took the craft to an altitude of 12,000 where free flights back to Rogers Dry Lake began. Pilot for the first series of flights of the M2-F1 was NASA research pilot Milt Thompson. Typical glide flights with the M2-F1 lasted about two minutes and reached speeds of 110 to 120 mph. More than 400 ground tows and 77 aircraft tow flights were carried out with the M2-F1. The success of Dryden's M2-F1 program led to NASA's development and construction of two heavyweight lifting bodies based on studies at NASA's Ames and Langley research centers--the M2-F2 and the HL-10, both built by the Northrop Corporation, and the U.S. Air Force's X-24 program. The Lifting Body program also heavily influenced the Space Shuttle program. The M2-F1 program demonstrated the feasibility of the lifting-body concept for horizontal landings of atmospheric entry vehicles. It also demonstrated a procurement and management concept for prototype flight research vehicles that produced rapid results at very low cost (approximately $50,000, excluding salaries of government employees assigned to the project). |
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NASA Photo by: | NASA photo | |
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Keywords: | M2; M2-F1; Lifting Body; R. Dale Reed; Pontiac Catalina convertible; ground-tow; Milt Thompson; C-47; aero tows; proof-of-concept; Ames Research Center; Flight Research Center; Dryden Flight Research Center; Langley Research Center; HL-10; M2-F2; Air Force; X-24; Northrop |
Dryden Home > Collections > Photo Home > M2-F1 Aircraft > Photo # EC64-404 |
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Last Modified: February 6, 2002 |