Lifting body
Encyclopedia
A lifting body is a fixed-wing aircraft
configuration in which the body itself produces lift
. In contrast to a flying wing
, which is a wing with minimal or no conventional fuselage
, a lifting body can be thought of as a fuselage with little or no conventional wing
. Whereas a flying wing seeks to maximize cruise efficiency at subsonic speeds by eliminating non-lifting surfaces, lifting bodies generally minimize the drag and structure of a wing for subsonic, supersonic
, and hypersonic
flight, or, spacecraft
re-entry
. All of these flight regimes pose challenges for proper flight stability.
Lifting bodies were a major area of research in the 1960s and 70s as a means to build a small and lightweight manned spacecraft. The US built a number of famous lifting body rocket planes to test the concept, as well as several rocket-launched re-entry vehicles that were tested over the Pacific. Interest waned as the US Air Force lost interest in the manned mission, and major development ended during the Space Shuttle design process when it became clear that the highly shaped fuselages made it difficult to fit fuel tankage.
-related lifting body research arose from the idea of spacecraft
re-entering
the Earth's atmosphere and landing much like a regular aircraft
. Following atmospheric re-entry, the traditional capsule-like spacecraft from the Mercury
, Gemini
and Apollo series had very little control over where they landed. A steerable spacecraft with wings could significantly extend its landing envelope. However, the vehicle's wings would have to be designed to withstand the dynamic and thermal stresses of both re-entry and hypersonic flight. A proposed solution eliminated wings altogether: design the fuselage body itself to produce lift.
NASA
's refinements of the lifting body concept began in 1962 with Dale Reed of NASA
's Dryden Flight Research Center
. The first full-size model to come out of Reed's program was the NASA M2-F1
, an unpowered craft made of wood. Initial tests were performed by towing the M2-F1 along a California dry lakebed at present-day Edwards Air Force Base, behind a modified
Pontiac Catalina
. Later the craft was towed behind a C-47
and released. Since the M2-F1 was a glider
, a small rocket motor was added in order to extend the landing envelope. The M2-F1 was soon nicknamed the "Flying Bathtub".
In 1963, NASA began programs with heavier rocket-powered lifting-body vehicles to be air launched from under the starboard wing of a NB-52B, a derivative of the B-52
jet bomber. The first flights started in 1966. Of the Dryden lifting bodies, all but the unpowered NASA M2-F1 used an XLR-11 rocket engine as was used on the famous Bell X-1
. A follow-on design designated the Northrop HL-10
was developed at NASA Langley Research Center
. Air flow separation caused the crash of the Northrop M2-F2
lifting body. The successor Northrop M2-F3
added a third (central) vertical stabilizer to the aerodynamically flawed M2-F2 design in an attempt to correct the flow separation instabilities. The HL-10 attempted to solve part of this problem by angling the port and starboard vertical stabilizer
s outward and enlarging the center one.
The X-24A and X-24B lifting body designs were also based on the M2 concept originated in 1957 by Alfred Eggers of NASA Ames Aeronautical Laboratory.
The X-38 program, developed under leadership of NASA Johnson Space Center, built an incremental series of flight demonstrators pursuant to the proposed Crew Return Vehicle (CRV) for the International Space Station. The X-38 was a lifting body based on the outer mold line of the X-24.
Starting 1965 the Russian lifting-body Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-105
or EPOS (Russian acronym for Experimental Passenger Orbital Aircraft) was developed and several test flights made. Works ended in 1978 when the efforts shifted to the Buran
program, while work on another small-scale spacecraft partly continued in the Bor program.
The IXV is a European Space Agency
lifting body experimental re-entry
vehicle intended to validate European reusable launchers which could be evaluated in the frame of the FLPP program. The IXV is scheduled to make its first orbiting flight in 2013, launched by a Vega rocket.
In planning for atmospheric re-entry, the landing site is selected in advance. For reusable reentry vehicles, typically a primary site is preferred that is closest to the launch site in order to reduce costs and improve launch turnaround time. However, weather near the landing site is a major factor in flight safety. In some seasons, weather at landing sites can change quickly relative to the time necessary to initiate and execute re-entry and safe landing. Due to weather, it is possible the vehicle may have to execute a landing at an alternate site. Furthermore, most airports do not have runways of sufficient length to support the approach landing speed and roll distance required by spacecraft. Few airports exist in the world that can support or be modified to support this type of requirement. Therefore, alternate landing sites are very widely spaced across the U.S. and around the world.
The Shuttle's delta wing design was driven by these issues. These requirements were further exacerbated by military requirements (the USAF would use the future shuttle for defense satellite payloads and other missions) that extended the Shuttle's flight landing envelope.
Although a lifting body configuration would not have been vulnerable to the wing leading edge failure that caused the second shuttle loss
, such a configuration could not meet the flight envelope
requirements of both NASA and the military.
Nonetheless, the lifting body concept has been implemented in a number of other aerospace
programs, the previously mentioned NASA X-38, Lockheed Martin X-33
, BAC
's Multi Unit Space Transport And Recovery Device, Europe's EADS Phoenix and the joint Russian-European Kliper
spacecraft. Of the three basic design shapes usually analyzed for such programs (capsule, lifting body, aircraft) the lifting body may offer the best trade-off in terms of maneuverability and thermodynamics while meeting its customers' mission requirements.
. The show's introduction footage showed the HL-10 being dropped from its carrier plane, a modified B-52; and also an M2-F2, piloted by Bruce Peterson
, crashing and tumbling violently along the Edwards dry lakebed runway. The cause of the crash was attributed to the onset of Dutch roll
stemming from control instability as induced by flow separation. Bruce Peterson survived to fly again and the craft was rebuilt as the M2-F3.
Lifting bodies have appeared in some science fiction
works, including the movie Marooned
, and as John Crichton's spacecraft Farscape-1 in the TV series Farscape
. The Discovery Channel
TV series conjectured using lifting bodies to deliver a probe to a distant earth-like planet in the computer animated Alien Planet
. Gerry Anderson
's 1969 Doppelgänger
used a VTOL
lifting body lander / ascender to visit an earth-like planet, only to crash in both attempts. In the Buzz Aldrin's Race into Space
computer game, a modified X-24A becomes an alternative lunar capable spacecraft that the player can choose over the Gemini
or Apollo
capsule.
produces 30% of the total lift from the fuselage, almost as much as the 35% each of the wings produces. Fighters like the F-15 Eagle
also produce substantial lift from the wide fuselage between the wings. Because the F-15 Eagle's wide fuselage is so efficient at lift, a F-15 was able to land successfully with only one wing, albeit under nearly full power, with thrust contributing significantly to lift.
Fixed-wing aircraft
A fixed-wing aircraft is an aircraft capable of flight using wings that generate lift due to the vehicle's forward airspeed. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinct from rotary-wing aircraft in which wings rotate about a fixed mast and ornithopters in which lift is generated by flapping wings.A powered...
configuration in which the body itself produces lift
Lift (force)
A fluid flowing past the surface of a body exerts a surface force on it. Lift is the component of this force that is perpendicular to the oncoming flow direction. It contrasts with the drag force, which is the component of the surface force parallel to the flow direction...
. In contrast to a flying wing
Flying wing
A flying wing is a tailless fixed-wing aircraft which has no definite fuselage, with most of the crew, payload and equipment being housed inside the main wing structure....
, which is a wing with minimal or no conventional fuselage
Fuselage
The fuselage is an aircraft's main body section that holds crew and passengers or cargo. In single-engine aircraft it will usually contain an engine, although in some amphibious aircraft the single engine is mounted on a pylon attached to the fuselage which in turn is used as a floating hull...
, a lifting body can be thought of as a fuselage with little or no conventional wing
Wing
A wing is an appendage with a surface that produces lift for flight or propulsion through the atmosphere, or through another gaseous or liquid fluid...
. Whereas a flying wing seeks to maximize cruise efficiency at subsonic speeds by eliminating non-lifting surfaces, lifting bodies generally minimize the drag and structure of a wing for subsonic, supersonic
Supersonic
Supersonic speed is a rate of travel of an object that exceeds the speed of sound . For objects traveling in dry air of a temperature of 20 °C this speed is approximately 343 m/s, 1,125 ft/s, 768 mph or 1,235 km/h. Speeds greater than five times the speed of sound are often...
, and hypersonic
Hypersonic
In aerodynamics, a hypersonic speed is one that is highly supersonic. Since the 1970s, the term has generally been assumed to refer to speeds of Mach 5 and above...
flight, or, spacecraft
Spacecraft
A spacecraft or spaceship is a craft or machine designed for spaceflight. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration and transportation of humans and cargo....
re-entry
Re-Entry
"Re-Entry" was the second album released by UK R&B / Hip Hop collective Big Brovaz. After the album was delayed in May 2006, the band finally release the follow-up to "Nu Flow" on 9 April 2007...
. All of these flight regimes pose challenges for proper flight stability.
Lifting bodies were a major area of research in the 1960s and 70s as a means to build a small and lightweight manned spacecraft. The US built a number of famous lifting body rocket planes to test the concept, as well as several rocket-launched re-entry vehicles that were tested over the Pacific. Interest waned as the US Air Force lost interest in the manned mission, and major development ended during the Space Shuttle design process when it became clear that the highly shaped fuselages made it difficult to fit fuel tankage.
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History
AerospaceAerospace
Aerospace comprises the atmosphere of Earth and surrounding space. Typically the term is used to refer to the industry that researches, designs, manufactures, operates, and maintains vehicles moving through air and space...
-related lifting body research arose from the idea of spacecraft
Spacecraft
A spacecraft or spaceship is a craft or machine designed for spaceflight. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration and transportation of humans and cargo....
re-entering
Atmospheric reentry
Atmospheric entry is the movement of human-made or natural objects as they enter the atmosphere of a celestial body from outer space—in the case of Earth from an altitude above the Kármán Line,...
the Earth's atmosphere and landing much like a regular aircraft
Aircraft
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air, or, in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines.Although...
. Following atmospheric re-entry, the traditional capsule-like spacecraft from the Mercury
Project Mercury
In January 1960 NASA awarded Western Electric Company a contract for the Mercury tracking network. The value of the contract was over $33 million. Also in January, McDonnell delivered the first production-type Mercury spacecraft, less than a year after award of the formal contract. On February 12,...
, Gemini
Project Gemini
Project Gemini was the second human spaceflight program of NASA, the civilian space agency of the United States government. Project Gemini was conducted between projects Mercury and Apollo, with ten manned flights occurring in 1965 and 1966....
and Apollo series had very little control over where they landed. A steerable spacecraft with wings could significantly extend its landing envelope. However, the vehicle's wings would have to be designed to withstand the dynamic and thermal stresses of both re-entry and hypersonic flight. A proposed solution eliminated wings altogether: design the fuselage body itself to produce lift.
NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
's refinements of the lifting body concept began in 1962 with Dale Reed of NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
's Dryden Flight Research Center
Dryden Flight Research Center
The Dryden Flight Research Center , located inside Edwards Air Force Base, is an aeronautical research center operated by NASA. On March 26, 1976 it was named in honor of the late Hugh L. Dryden, a prominent aeronautical engineer who at the time of his death in 1965 was NASA's deputy administrator...
. The first full-size model to come out of Reed's program was the NASA M2-F1
NASA M2-F1
The NASA M2-F1 was a lightweight, unpowered prototype aircraft, developed to flight test the wingless lifting body concept. It looked like a "flying bathtub," and was designated the M2-F1, the "M" referring to "manned" and "F" referring to "flight" version. In 1962, NASA Dryden management approved...
, an unpowered craft made of wood. Initial tests were performed by towing the M2-F1 along a California dry lakebed at present-day Edwards Air Force Base, behind a modified
Hot rod
Hot rods are typically American cars with large engines modified for linear speed. The origin of the term "hot rod" is unclear. One explanation is that the term is a contraction of "hot roadster," meaning a roadster that was modified for speed. Another possible origin includes modifications to or...
Pontiac Catalina
Pontiac Catalina
The Pontiac Catalina was part of Pontiac's full-sized automobile line. Initially, the name was used strictly to denote hardtop body styles, first appearing in the 1950 Chieftain Eight and DeLuxe Eight lines...
. Later the craft was towed behind a C-47
C-47 Skytrain
The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota is a military transport aircraft that was developed from the Douglas DC-3 airliner. It was used extensively by the Allies during World War II and remained in front line operations through the 1950s with a few remaining in operation to this day.-Design and...
and released. Since the M2-F1 was a glider
Glider aircraft
Glider aircraft are heavier-than-air craft that are supported in flight by the dynamic reaction of the air against their lifting surfaces, and whose free flight does not depend on an engine. Mostly these types of aircraft are intended for routine operation without engines, though engine failure can...
, a small rocket motor was added in order to extend the landing envelope. The M2-F1 was soon nicknamed the "Flying Bathtub".
In 1963, NASA began programs with heavier rocket-powered lifting-body vehicles to be air launched from under the starboard wing of a NB-52B, a derivative of the B-52
B-52 Stratofortress
The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is a long-range, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bomber operated by the United States Air Force since the 1950s. The B-52 was designed and built by Boeing, who have continued to provide maintainence and upgrades to the aircraft in service...
jet bomber. The first flights started in 1966. Of the Dryden lifting bodies, all but the unpowered NASA M2-F1 used an XLR-11 rocket engine as was used on the famous Bell X-1
Bell X-1
The Bell X-1, originally designated XS-1, was a joint NACA-U.S. Army/US Air Force supersonic research project built by Bell Aircraft. Conceived in 1944 and designed and built over 1945, it eventually reached nearly 1,000 mph in 1948...
. A follow-on design designated the Northrop HL-10
Northrop HL-10
The Northrop HL-10 was one of five heavyweight lifting body designs flown at NASA's Flight Research Center , Edwards, California, from July 1966 to November 1975 to study and validate the concept of safely maneuvering and landing a low lift-over-drag vehicle designed for reentry from space...
was developed at NASA Langley Research Center
Langley Research Center
Langley Research Center is the oldest of NASA's field centers, located in Hampton, Virginia, United States. It directly borders Poquoson, Virginia and Langley Air Force Base...
. Air flow separation caused the crash of the Northrop M2-F2
Northrop M2-F2
|-See also:-External links:***** of Peterson's crash...
lifting body. The successor Northrop M2-F3
Northrop M2-F3
The Northrop M2-F3 was a heavyweight lifting body rebuilt from the Northrop M2-F2 after it crashed at the Dryden Flight Research Center in 1967. It was modified with an additional third vertical fin - centered between the tip fins - to improve control characteristics...
added a third (central) vertical stabilizer to the aerodynamically flawed M2-F2 design in an attempt to correct the flow separation instabilities. The HL-10 attempted to solve part of this problem by angling the port and starboard vertical stabilizer
Vertical stabilizer
The vertical stabilizers, vertical stabilisers, or fins, of aircraft, missiles or bombs are typically found on the aft end of the fuselage or body, and are intended to reduce aerodynamic side slip. It is analogical to a skeg on boats and ships.On aircraft, vertical stabilizers generally point upwards...
s outward and enlarging the center one.
The X-24A and X-24B lifting body designs were also based on the M2 concept originated in 1957 by Alfred Eggers of NASA Ames Aeronautical Laboratory.
The X-38 program, developed under leadership of NASA Johnson Space Center, built an incremental series of flight demonstrators pursuant to the proposed Crew Return Vehicle (CRV) for the International Space Station. The X-38 was a lifting body based on the outer mold line of the X-24.
Starting 1965 the Russian lifting-body Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-105
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-105
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-105 was a manned test vehicle to explore low-speed handling and landing.It was a visible result of a Soviet project to create an orbital spaceplane...
or EPOS (Russian acronym for Experimental Passenger Orbital Aircraft) was developed and several test flights made. Works ended in 1978 when the efforts shifted to the Buran
Buran
Buran may refer to:* Buran , a Soviet space shuttle** Buran program, which developed the spacecraft* Buran eavesdropping device, invented by Léon Theremin, used by soviet intelligence* Buran cruise missile, a Soviet cruise missile...
program, while work on another small-scale spacecraft partly continued in the Bor program.
The IXV is a European Space Agency
European Space Agency
The European Space Agency , established in 1975, is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space, currently with 18 member states...
lifting body experimental re-entry
Re-Entry
"Re-Entry" was the second album released by UK R&B / Hip Hop collective Big Brovaz. After the album was delayed in May 2006, the band finally release the follow-up to "Nu Flow" on 9 April 2007...
vehicle intended to validate European reusable launchers which could be evaluated in the frame of the FLPP program. The IXV is scheduled to make its first orbiting flight in 2013, launched by a Vega rocket.
Aerospace applications
Lifting bodies pose complex control, structural, and internal configuration issues. Lifting bodies were eventually rejected in favor of a delta wing design for the Space Shuttle. Data acquired in flight test using high-speed landing approaches at very steep descent angles and high sink rates was used for modeling Shuttle flight and landing profiles.In planning for atmospheric re-entry, the landing site is selected in advance. For reusable reentry vehicles, typically a primary site is preferred that is closest to the launch site in order to reduce costs and improve launch turnaround time. However, weather near the landing site is a major factor in flight safety. In some seasons, weather at landing sites can change quickly relative to the time necessary to initiate and execute re-entry and safe landing. Due to weather, it is possible the vehicle may have to execute a landing at an alternate site. Furthermore, most airports do not have runways of sufficient length to support the approach landing speed and roll distance required by spacecraft. Few airports exist in the world that can support or be modified to support this type of requirement. Therefore, alternate landing sites are very widely spaced across the U.S. and around the world.
The Shuttle's delta wing design was driven by these issues. These requirements were further exacerbated by military requirements (the USAF would use the future shuttle for defense satellite payloads and other missions) that extended the Shuttle's flight landing envelope.
Although a lifting body configuration would not have been vulnerable to the wing leading edge failure that caused the second shuttle loss
Space Shuttle Columbia disaster
The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster occurred on February 1, 2003, when shortly before it was scheduled to conclude its 28th mission, STS-107, the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas and Louisiana during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, resulting in the death of all seven crew members...
, such a configuration could not meet the flight envelope
Flight envelope
In aerodynamics, the flight envelope or performance envelope of an aircraft refers to the capabilities of a design in terms of airspeed and load factor or altitude. The term is somewhat loosely applied, and can also refer to other measurements such as maneuverability...
requirements of both NASA and the military.
Nonetheless, the lifting body concept has been implemented in a number of other aerospace
Aerospace
Aerospace comprises the atmosphere of Earth and surrounding space. Typically the term is used to refer to the industry that researches, designs, manufactures, operates, and maintains vehicles moving through air and space...
programs, the previously mentioned NASA X-38, Lockheed Martin X-33
Lockheed Martin X-33
The Lockheed Martin X-33 was an unmanned, sub-scale technology demonstrator suborbital spaceplane developed in the 1990s under the U.S. government-funded Space Launch Initiative program. The X-33 was a technology demonstrator for the VentureStar orbital spaceplane, which was planned to be a...
, BAC
British Aircraft Corporation
The British Aircraft Corporation was a British aircraft manufacturer formed from the government-pressured merger of English Electric Aviation Ltd., Vickers-Armstrongs , the Bristol Aeroplane Company and Hunting Aircraft in 1960. Bristol, English Electric and Vickers became "parents" of BAC with...
's Multi Unit Space Transport And Recovery Device, Europe's EADS Phoenix and the joint Russian-European Kliper
Kliper
Kliper is a partly reusable manned spacecraft, proposed by RSC Energia.Designed primarily to replace the Soyuz spacecraft, Kliper has been proposed in two versions: as a pure lifting body design and as spaceplane with small wings...
spacecraft. Of the three basic design shapes usually analyzed for such programs (capsule, lifting body, aircraft) the lifting body may offer the best trade-off in terms of maneuverability and thermodynamics while meeting its customers' mission requirements.
Popular culture
Much of the general public had never heard of nor seen anything about these lifting body designs until watching the 1970s television show The Six Million Dollar ManThe Six Million Dollar Man
The Six Million Dollar Man is an American television series about a former astronaut with bionic implants working for the OSI...
. The show's introduction footage showed the HL-10 being dropped from its carrier plane, a modified B-52; and also an M2-F2, piloted by Bruce Peterson
Bruce Peterson
Bruce Peterson was a test pilot for NASA.A native of Washburn, North Dakota, he attended the University of California at Los Angeles, and California Polytechnic State University...
, crashing and tumbling violently along the Edwards dry lakebed runway. The cause of the crash was attributed to the onset of Dutch roll
Dutch roll
Dutch roll is a type of aircraft motion, consisting of an out-of-phase combination of "tail-wagging" and rocking from side to side. This yaw-roll coupling is one of the basic flight dynamic modes...
stemming from control instability as induced by flow separation. Bruce Peterson survived to fly again and the craft was rebuilt as the M2-F3.
Lifting bodies have appeared in some science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
works, including the movie Marooned
Marooned (film)
Marooned is a 1969 American film directed by John Sturges and starring Gregory Peck, Richard Crenna, David Janssen, James Franciscus, and Gene Hackman....
, and as John Crichton's spacecraft Farscape-1 in the TV series Farscape
Farscape
Farscape is an Australian-American science fiction television series filmed in Australia and produced originally for the Nine Network. The series was conceived by Rockne S. O'Bannon and produced by Jim Henson Productions and Hallmark Entertainment...
. The Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
TV series conjectured using lifting bodies to deliver a probe to a distant earth-like planet in the computer animated Alien Planet
Alien Planet
Alien Planet is a 94-minute docufiction, originally airing on the Discovery Channel, about two internationally built robot probes searching for alien life on the fictional planet Darwin IV. It was based on the book Expedition, by sci-fi/fantasy artist and writer Wayne Douglas Barlowe, who was also...
. Gerry Anderson
Gerry Anderson
Gerry Anderson MBE is a British publisher, producer, director and writer, famous for his futuristic television programmes, particularly those involving specially modified marionettes, a process called "Supermarionation"....
's 1969 Doppelgänger
Doppelgänger (1969 film)
Doppelgänger is a 1969 British science-fiction film directed by Robert Parrish and starring Roy Thinnes, Ian Hendry, Lynn Loring and Patrick Wymark. Outside Europe, it is known as Journey to the Far Side of the Sun, which is now the more popular title...
used a VTOL
VTOL
A vertical take-off and landing aircraft is one that can hover, take off and land vertically. This classification includes fixed-wing aircraft as well as helicopters and other aircraft with powered rotors, such as cyclogyros/cyclocopters and tiltrotors...
lifting body lander / ascender to visit an earth-like planet, only to crash in both attempts. In the Buzz Aldrin's Race into Space
Buzz Aldrin's Race into Space
Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space, frequently abbreviated BARIS, is a space simulation and strategy game for MS-DOS. The player takes the role of Administrator of NASA or head of the Soviet space program with the ultimate goal of being the first side to conduct a successful manned moon landing...
computer game, a modified X-24A becomes an alternative lunar capable spacecraft that the player can choose over the Gemini
Project Gemini
Project Gemini was the second human spaceflight program of NASA, the civilian space agency of the United States government. Project Gemini was conducted between projects Mercury and Apollo, with ten manned flights occurring in 1965 and 1966....
or Apollo
Project Apollo
The Apollo program was the spaceflight effort carried out by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration , that landed the first humans on Earth's Moon. Conceived during the Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Apollo began in earnest after President John F...
capsule.
Body lift
Some aircraft with wings also employ bodies that generate lift. The Short SC.7 SkyvanShort SC.7 Skyvan
-See also:-References:NotesBibliography* Jackson, A.J. British Civil Aircraft since 1919 . London: Putnam, 1974. ISBN 0-370-10014-X.-External links:****...
produces 30% of the total lift from the fuselage, almost as much as the 35% each of the wings produces. Fighters like the F-15 Eagle
F-15 Eagle
The McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle is a twin-engine, all-weather tactical fighter designed by McDonnell Douglas to gain and maintain air superiority in aerial combat. It is considered among the most successful modern fighters with over 100 aerial combat victories with no losses in dogfights...
also produce substantial lift from the wide fuselage between the wings. Because the F-15 Eagle's wide fuselage is so efficient at lift, a F-15 was able to land successfully with only one wing, albeit under nearly full power, with thrust contributing significantly to lift.
On the summer of 1983, an Israeli F-15 staged a mock dogfight with Skyhawks for training purposes, near Nahal Tzin in the Negev desert. During the exercise, one of the Skyhawks miscalculated and collided forcefully with the F-15's wing root. The F-15's pilot was aware that the wing had been seriously damaged, but decided to try and land in a nearby airbase, not knowing the extent of his wing damage. It was only after he had landed, when he climbed out of the cockpit and looked backward, that the pilot realized what had happened: the wing had been completely torn off the plane, and he had landed the plane with only one wing attached. A few months later, the damaged F-15 had been given a new wing, and returned to operational duty in the squadron. The engineers at McDonnell Douglas had a hard time believing the story of the one-winged landing: as far as their planning models were concerned, this was an impossibility.
List of Dryden Flight Research Center lifting body vehicles (1963 to 1975)
- M2-F1NASA M2-F1The NASA M2-F1 was a lightweight, unpowered prototype aircraft, developed to flight test the wingless lifting body concept. It looked like a "flying bathtub," and was designated the M2-F1, the "M" referring to "manned" and "F" referring to "flight" version. In 1962, NASA Dryden management approved...
- M2-F2Northrop M2-F2|-See also:-External links:***** of Peterson's crash...
- M2-F3Northrop M2-F3The Northrop M2-F3 was a heavyweight lifting body rebuilt from the Northrop M2-F2 after it crashed at the Dryden Flight Research Center in 1967. It was modified with an additional third vertical fin - centered between the tip fins - to improve control characteristics...
- HL-10Northrop HL-10The Northrop HL-10 was one of five heavyweight lifting body designs flown at NASA's Flight Research Center , Edwards, California, from July 1966 to November 1975 to study and validate the concept of safely maneuvering and landing a low lift-over-drag vehicle designed for reentry from space...
- X-24A
- X-24B
Lifting body pilots and flights
| Pilot | M2-F1 | M2-F2 | HL-10 | HL-10 mod |
M2-F3 | X-24A | X-24B | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Milton O. Thompson | 45 | 5 | - | - | - | - | - | 50 |
| Bruce Peterson Bruce Peterson Bruce Peterson was a test pilot for NASA.A native of Washburn, North Dakota, he attended the University of California at Los Angeles, and California Polytechnic State University... |
17 | 3 | 1 | - | - | - | - | 21 |
| Chuck Yeager Chuck Yeager Charles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager is a retired major general in the United States Air Force and noted test pilot. He was the first pilot to travel faster than sound... |
5 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 5 |
| Donald L. Mallick | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 2 |
| James W. Wood James W. Wood James Wayne Wood was an American astronaut in the X-20 Dyna-Soar program.He was born in Paragould, Arkansas on August 9, 1924.... |
* | - | - | - | - | - | - | * |
| Donald M. Sorlie | 5 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | 8 |
| William H. Dana William H. Dana -Career:Dana was born in Pasadena, California, November 3, 1930, received his Bachelor of Science degree from the U.S. Military Academy in 1952 and served four years as a pilot in the U.S. Air Force... |
1 | - | - | 9 | 19 | - | 2 | 31 |
| Jerauld R. Gentry Jerauld R. Gentry Jerauld Richard "Jerry" Gentry was a United States Air Force test pilot and Vietnam combat veteran. As chief USAF pilot of the Lifting Body Research Program, he helped validate the concept of flying a wingless vehicle back to Earth from space and landing it like an aircraft—an approach used... |
2 | 5 | - | 9 | 1 | 13 | - | 30 |
| Fred Haise Fred Haise Fred Wallace Haise, Jr. is an engineer and former NASA astronaut. He is one of only 24 people to have flown to the Moon. Having flown on Apollo 13, Haise was to be the sixth human to walk on the Moon, but the mission did not land due to a failure aboard the spacecraft.-Early life and... |
* | - | - | - | - | - | - | * |
| Joe Engle | * | - | - | - | - | - | - | * |
| John A. Manke | - | - | - | 10 | 4 | 12 | 16 | 42 |
| Peter C. Hoag | - | - | - | 8 | - | - | - | 8 |
| Cecil W. Powell | - | - | - | - | 3 | 3 | - | 6 |
| Michael V. Love | - | - | - | - | - | - | 12 | 12 |
| Einar K. Enevoldson | - | - | - | - | - | - | 2 | 2 |
| Francis Scobee | - | - | - | - | - | - | 2 | 2 |
| Thomas C. McMurtry | - | - | - | - | - | - | 2 | 2 |
| TOTAL | 77 | 16 | 1 | 36 | 27 | 28 | 36 | 221 |
- * Wood, Haise and Engle each made a single, car-towed, ground flight of the M2-F1.
See also
- BOR-4BOR-4The BOR-4 flight vehicle is a scaled prototype of the Soviet Spiral VTHL spaceplane. An unmanned, subscale craft, its purpose was to test the heatshield tiles and reinforced carbon-carbon for the Buran space shuttle, then under development...
- KliperKliperKliper is a partly reusable manned spacecraft, proposed by RSC Energia.Designed primarily to replace the Soyuz spacecraft, Kliper has been proposed in two versions: as a pure lifting body design and as spaceplane with small wings...
- HL-20 Personnel Launch SystemHL-20 Personnel Launch SystemThe HL-20 Personnel Launch System was a circa 1990 NASA spaceplane concept for manned orbital missions studied by NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. HL-20 was envisaged as a lifting body re-entry vehicle based on the Soviet BOR-4 spaceplane design featuring low operational costs,...
- Dream Chaser (spacecraft)
- Prometheus (spacecraft)Prometheus (spacecraft)Prometheus was a proposed manned vertical-takeoff, horizontal-landing spaceplane concept put forward by Orbital Sciences Corporation in late 2010 as part of the second phase of NASA's Commercial Crew Development program.-Design:...
- FacetmobileFacetmobile|-Current status:The prototype FMX-4 Facetmobile crashed on October 13, 1995, after an in-flight engine failure. The aircraft landed at low speed into a barbed wire fence, which caused extensive skin, engine, and some structural damage, though there was no injury to the pilot...
- Blended wing bodyBlended wing bodyBlended Wing Body aircraft have a flattened and airfoil shaped body, which produces most of the lift, the wings contributing the balance. The body form is composed of distinct and separate wing structures, though the wings are smoothly blended into the body...
- Flying wingFlying wingA flying wing is a tailless fixed-wing aircraft which has no definite fuselage, with most of the crew, payload and equipment being housed inside the main wing structure....
- MUSTARDMUSTARDThe Multi-Unit Space Transport And Recovery Device or MUSTARD was a concept explored by the British Aircraft Corporation around 1968 for launching payloads weighing as much as 5,000 lb. into orbit...
Other sources
- McPhee, JohnJohn McPheeJohn Angus McPhee is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, widely considered one of the pioneers of creative nonfiction....
(1973), The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed; ISBN 0-374-51635-9. (Story of the AereonAEREONAEREON is an aircraft manufacturer specialising in unique hybrid airships. It was founded in Princeton, New Jersey in 1959....
, a combination aerodyneAerodyneAerodyne may refer to:*Heavier-than-air aircraft, deriving lift from dynamic motion through the air.*The Fender Aerodyne Telecaster, a contemporary model of the classic Fender Telecaster Electric guitar....
/aerostatAerostatAn aerostat is a craft that remains aloft primarily through the use of buoyant lighter than air gases, which impart lift to a vehicle with nearly the same overall density as air. Aerostats include free balloons, airships, and moored balloons...
, a.k.a. hybrid airshipHybrid airship"A hybrid airship is an aircraft that combines characteristics of heavier-than-air technology, fixed-wing aircraft or helicopter, and lighter-than-air , aerostat technology."[1]Examples include helicopter/airship hybrids intended for heavy lift applications and dynamic lift airships intended for...
.)
External links
- Lifting Bodies Fact Sheet (NASA)
- NASA Tech Paper 3101: Numerical Analysis and Simulation of an Assured Crew Return Vehicle Flow Field (The math of airflow over a lifting body)
- NASA Photo Collections from Dryden Flight Research CenterDryden Flight Research CenterThe Dryden Flight Research Center , located inside Edwards Air Force Base, is an aeronautical research center operated by NASA. On March 26, 1976 it was named in honor of the late Hugh L. Dryden, a prominent aeronautical engineer who at the time of his death in 1965 was NASA's deputy administrator...