![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/sySQ8hJAT2ESNp4ugec2Q4.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\nOn Aug. 16, 1963, NASA’s M2-F1 aircraft prototype made its first glide flight.<\/p>\n
This wingless aircraft kind of looked like a flying bathtub. NASA made it to test a new concept called the lifting body, which was an unpowered glider that provided an alternative way to return piloted spacecraft to Earth. Instead of pummeling out of the sky in a ballistic reentry, the lifting body landed sort of like an airplane.<\/p>\n
For its first test flight, the M2-F1 was towed 5,200 feet into the air by a C-47 Skytrain and then released. Test pilot Milt Thompson was in the cockpit, and he brought the glider in for a smooth landing in California after a two-minute descent.<\/p>\n
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On Aug. 16, 1963, NASA’s M2-F1 aircraft prototype made its first glide flight. (Image credit: NASA)Why it mattered<\/p>\n The success of M2-F1’s first glide flight proved a wingless lifting-body aircraft could be controlled and landed safely. The introduction of a second potential method of returning astronauts from space<\/a> was a crucial consideration during a time when NASA was racing against the Soviet Union<\/a> for access to space and, ultimately, the moon.<\/p>\n Though NASA<\/a> opted for the familiar capsule and heat shield design used during the Mercury<\/a>, Gemini<\/a> and Apollo<\/a> programs, the M2-F1 and its subsequent test flights paved the way for NASA’s continued research into lifting-bodies, and led to the development of an entire family of lifting-body test vehicles like the M2-F2<\/a>, M2-F3<\/a>, HL-10<\/a>, and the U.S. Air Force’s X-24A<\/a> and X-24B<\/a>, which executed lifting-body flights at much higher speeds and altitudes.<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n Eventually, data from these programs was applied to the development of the space shuttle<\/a>, and the real-life practice of landing a spacecraft back on Earth<\/a> the same way you would an airplane.<\/p>\n![\"Space\"](\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/media\/img\/spc-logo-w.svg\"){kind=logo}
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