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M2-F3 with test pilot John A
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| Photo Description |
NASA research pilot John A. Manke is seen here in front of the M2-F3 Lifting Body. Manke was hired by NASA on May 25, 1962, as a flight research engineer. He was later assigned to the pilot's office and flew various support aircraft including the F-104, F5D, F-111 and C-47. After leaving the Marine Corps in 1960, Manke worked for Honeywell Corporation as a test engineer for two years before coming to NASA. He was project pilot on the X-24B and also flew the HL-10, M2-F3, and X-24A lifting bodies. John made the first supersonic flight of a lifting body and the first landing of a lifting body on a hard surface runway. Manke served as Director of the Flight Operations and Support Directorate at the Dryden Flight Research Center prior to its integration with Ames Research Center in October 1981. After this date John was named to head the joint Ames-Dryden Directorate of Flight Operations. He also served as site manager of the NASA Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility. John is a member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots. He retired on April 27, 1984. |
| Project Description |
A fleet of lifting bodies flown at the NASA Flight Research Center (FRC--later the Dryden Flight Research Center), Edwards, California, from 1963 to 1975 demonstrated the ability of pilots to maneuver and safely land a wingless vehicle designed to fly back to Earth from space and be landed like an aircraft at a pre-determined site. Aerodynamic lift--essential to flight in the atmosphere--was obtained from the shape of their bodies. The addition of fins and control surfaces allowed the pilots to stabilize and control the vehicles and regulate their flight paths. The information the lifting body program generated contributed to the data base that led to development of today's space shuttle program. The success of the FRC's M2-F1 [ http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Photo/M2-F1/index.html ] 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. The "M" refers to "manned" and "F" refers to "flight" version. "HL" comes from "horizontal landing" and 10 is for the tenth lifting body model to be investigated by Langley. The first flight of the M2-F2--which looked much like the "F1"--was on July 12, 1966. Milt Thompson was the pilot. By then, the same B-52s used to air launch the famed X-15 rocket research aircraft were modified to also carry the lifting bodies. Thompson was dropped from the B-52's wing pylon mount at an altitude of 45,000 feet on that maiden glide flight. The M2-F2 weighed 4,620 pounds, was 22 feet long, and had a width of about 10 feet. On May 10, 1967, during the sixteenth glide flight leading up to powered flight, a landing accident severely damaged the vehicle and seriously injured the NASA pilot, Bruce Peterson. NASA pilots and researchers realized the M2-F2 had lateral control problems, even though it had a stability augmentation (control) system. When the M2-F2 was rebuilt by the Northrop Corporation with the help and cooperation of the FRC and redesignated the M2-F3 [ http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Photo/M2-F3/index.html ], it was modified with an additional third vertical fin--centered between the tip fins--to improve control characteristics. The M2-F2/F3 was the first of the heavy-weight, entry-configuration (i.e., configured for re-entry to the atmosphere from space) lifting bodies. Its successful development as a research test vehicle answered many of the generic questions about these vehicles. NASA donated the M2-F3 vehicle to the Smithsonian Institute in December 1973. It is currently hanging in the Air and Space Museum along with the X-15 aircraft number 1, which was its hangar partner at Dryden from 1965 to 1969. |
| Photo Date |
December 20, 1972 |
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X-24B in flight and landing
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X-24B landing on runway 04 a
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X-24B launch - air drop from
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X-24B launch from B-52 mothe
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M2-F3 with test pilot John A
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| Title |
M2-F3 with test pilot John A. Manke |
| Description |
(control) system. When the M2-F2 was rebuilt by the Northrop Corporation with the help and cooperation of the FRC and redesignated theM2-F3 [ http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/gallery/photo/M2-F3/index.html ], it was modified with an additional third vertical fin--centered between the tip fins--to improve control characteristics. The M2-F2/F3 was the first of the heavy-weight, entry-configuration (i.e., configured for re-entry to the atmosphere from space) lifting bodies. Its successful development as a research test vehicle answered many of the generic questions about these vehicles. NASA donated The M2-F3 vehicle to the Smithsonian Institute in December 1973. It is currently hanging in the Air and Space Museum along with the X-15 aircraft number 1, which was its hangar partner at Dryden from 1965 to 1969., NASA research pilot John A. Manke is seen here in front of the M2-F3 Lifting Body. Manke was hired by NASA on May 25, 1962, as a flight research engineer. He was later assigned to the pilot's office and flew various support aircraft including the F-104, F5D, F-111 and C-47. After leaving the Marine Corps in 1960, Manke worked for Honeywell Corporation as a test engineer for two years before coming to NASA. He was project pilot on the X-24B and also flew the HL-10, M2-F3, and X-24A lifting bodies. John made the first supersonic flight of a lifting body and the first landing of a lifting body on a hard surface runway. Manke served as Director of the Flight Operations and Support Directorate at the Dryden Flight Research Center prior to its integration with Ames Research Center in October 1981. After this date John was named to head the joint Ames-Dryden Directorate of Flight Operations. He also served as site manager of the NASA Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility. John is a member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots. He retired on April 27, 1984. A fleet of lifting bodies flown at the NASA Flight Research Center (FRC--later the Dryden Flight Research Center), Edwards, California, from 1963 to l975 demonstrated the ability of pilots to maneuver and safely land a wingless vehicle designed to fly back to Earth from space and be landed like an aircraft at a pre-determined site. Aerodynamic lift--essential to flight in the atmosphere--was obtained from the shape of their bodies. The addition of fins and control surfaces allowed the pilots to stabilize and control the vehicles and regulate their flight paths. The information the lifting body program generated contributed to the data base that led to development of today's space shuttle program. The success of the FRC'sM2-F1 [ http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/gallery/photo/M2-F1/index.html ]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. The "M" refers to "manned" and "F" refers to "flight" version. "HL" comes from "horizontal landing" and 10 is for the tenth lifting body model to be investigated by Langley. The first flight of the M2-F2--which looked much like the "F1"--was on July 12, 1966. Milt Thompson was the pilot. By then, the same B-52s used to air launch the famed X-15 rocket research aircraft were modified to also carry the lifting bodies. Thompson was dropped from the B-52's wing pylon mount at an altitude of 45,000 feet on that maiden glide flight. The M2-F2 weighed 4,620 pounds, was 22 feet long, and had a width of about 10 feet. On May 10, 1967, during the sixteenth glide flight leading up to powered flight, a landing accident severely damaged the vehicle and seriously injured the NASA pilot, Bruce Peterson. NASA pilots and researchers realized the M2-F2 had lateral control problems, even though it had a stability augmentation |
| Date |
01.01.1972 |
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X-24B launch - air drop from
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| Title |
X-24B launch - air drop from mothership |
| Description |
A fleet of lifting bodies flown at the NASA Flight Research Center, Edwards, California, from 1963 to l975 demonstrated the ability of pilots to maneuver (in the atmosphere) and safely land a wingless vehicle. These lifting bodies were basically designed so they could fly back to Earth from space and be landed like an aircraft at a pre-determined site. (In 1976 NASA renamed the FRC as the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center in honor of Hugh L. Dryden.) In 1962, FRC Director Paul Bikle 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. It featured a plywood shell, built by Gus Briegleb (a sailplane builder from El Mirage, California) placed over a tubular steel frame crafted at the FRC. Construction was completed in 1963. The success of the Flight Research Center M2-F1 program led to NASA development and construction of two heavyweight lifting bodies based on studies at the NASA Ames and Langley research centers--the M2-F2 and the HL-10, both built by the Northrop Corporation, Hawthorne, California. The Air Force also became interested in lifting body research and had a third design concept built, the X-24A, built by the Martin Company, Denver, Colorado. It was later modified into the X-24B and both configurations were flown in the joint NASA-Air Force lifting body program located at Dryden. The X-24B design evolved from a family of potential reentry shapes, each with higher lift-to-drag ratios, proposed by the Air Force Flight Dynamics Laboratory. To reduce the costs of constructing a research vehicle, the Air Force returned the X-24A to Martin for modifications that converted its bulbous shape into one resembling a "flying flatiron" -- rounded top, flat bottom, and a double-delta planform that ended in a pointed nose. First to fly the X-24B was John A. Manke, a glide flight on August 1, 1973. He was also the pilot on the first powered mission November 15, 1973. Among the final flights with the X-24B were two precise landings on the main concrete runway at Edwards, California, which showed that accurate unpowered reentry vehicle landings were operationally feasible. These missions were flown by Manke and Air Force Maj. Mike Love and represented the final milestone in a program that helped write the flight plan for the Space Shuttle program of today. After launch from the B-52 "mothership" at an altitude of about 45,000 feet, the XLR-11 rocket engine was ignited and the vehicle accelerated to speeds of more than 1,100 miles per hour and to altitudes of 60,000 to 70,000 feet. After the rocket engine was shut down, the pilots began steep glides towards the Edwards runway. As the pilots entered the final leg of their approach, they increased their rate of descent to build up speed and used this energy to perform a "flare out" maneuver, which slowed their landing speed to about 200 miles per hour--the same basic, approach pattern and landing speed of the Space Shuttles today. The final powered flight with the X-24B aircraft was on September 23, l975. The pilot was Bill Dana, and it was also the last rocket-powered flight flown at Dryden. It was also Dana who flew the last X-15 mission about seven years earlier. Top speed reached with the X-24B was 1,164 miles per hour (Mach 1.76) by Love on October 25, 1974. The highest altitude reached was 74,100 feet, by Manke on May 22, 1975. The X-24B is on public display at the Air Force Museum, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. This roughly 20-second video clip shows the X-24B dropping from the B-52 mothership, after which the rocket engine ignites. |
| Date |
01.01.1974 |
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