|
TERMS OF USE:
This free image can only be used for non-commercial, personal
website use only. THIS IMAGE CANNOT BE
used in galleries, downloaded to your computer, posted on sites for
others to use, manipulated, downsized, or upsized. If you are confused about the
terms of use or have any questions then contact us before using the image.
Free Picture: M2-F1 In Tow Flight
|
Description
Stock photo of a M2-F1 lifting body under tow at the Flight Research Center (later redesignated the Dryden Flight Research Center), Edwards, California, January 1st 1964. 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 feet where free flights back to Rogers Dry Lake began.
Keywords
aircraft, c-47 m2-f1, dryden aircraft, flight research center, lifting bodies, lifting body, liftying body aircraft, m2-f1, milt thompson, nasa, nasa aircraft, nasa flight research center, tow flight, free photography, free photo, free photos, free picture, free pictures, free image, free images
|
Similar Free nasa aircraft Pictures
|
|
|
|
