The lifting body concept evolved in the late 1950's as researchers considered alternatives to ballistic reentries of piloted space capsules. The designs for hypersonic, wingless vehicles were on the boards at NASA Ames and NASA Langley facilities, while the US Air Force was gearing up for its Dyna-Soar program, which defined the need for a spacecraft that would land like an airplane.

Despite favorable research on lifting bodies, there was little support for a flight program. Dryden engineer R. Dale Reed was intrigued with the lifting body concept, and reasoned that some sort of flight demonstration was needed before wingless aircraft could be taken seriously.

In February 1962, he built a model lifting body based upon the Ames M2 design, and air-launched it from a radio controlled "mothership." Home movies of these flights, plus the support of research pilot Milt Thompson, helped persuade the facilities director, Paul Bickle, to give the go-ahead for the construction of a full-scale version, to be used as a wind tunnel model and possibly flown as a glider. Comparing lifting bodies to space capsules, an unofficial motto of the project was "Don't be Rescued from Outer Space -- Fly Back in Style." The construction of the M2-F1 was a joint effort by Dryden and a local glider
manufacturer, the Briegleb Glider Company. The budget was $30,000. NASA craftsmen and engineers built the tubular steel interior frame. Its mahogany plywood shell was hand-made by Gus Briegleb and company. Ernie Lowder, a NASA craftsman
who had worked on the Howard Hughes "Spruce Goose," was assigned to help Briegleb.

The prototype of a 21st Century spacecraft required the fabrication of hundreds of small wooden parts meticulously nailed and glued together. It was a product of craftsmanship that was nearly obsolete in the 1940's.

Final assembly of the remaining components (including aluminum tail surfaces, push rod controls, and landing gear from a
Cessna 150) was done at the NASA facility.

In the meantime, other NASA engineers devised a special M2-F1 flight simulator, and a hot rod shop near Long Beach souped-
up a Pontiac convertible to be used as the lifting body ground-tow vehicle.

The M2-F1 did not have ailerons. Instead, it had elevons which were attached to each of the two rudders. A large flap on the trailing edge of the body acted as an elevator. This unconventional arrangement prompted the engineers to rethink the flight control system as well. They eventually devised two schemes. One system was fairly traditional. It used rudder pedal inputs to move the rudders for yaw control, and stick inputs to provide differential deflections of the elevons for roll. The other system
used stick inputs to control the rudders for yaw, while rudder pedal deflections moved the elevons for roll.

Milt Thompson tried both systems in the simulator, and surprised the design team when he said he preferred system number
two. He reasoned that although sideslip delayed roll (which was a result of dihedral effect), the roll rate was twice as high using the rudders instead of the elevons. He said he would rather have the higher roll rates available to him if needed, while the
sideslip could be overcome with proper piloting technique.

This was the system that Thompson practiced with on the simulator, and he used it during the initial automobile tows.
Automobile tows were done using a 1000-foot rope fastened to the NASA Pontiac. Rogers Dry Lake provided miles of
unobstructed motoring.

On April 5, 1963 Thompson lifted the nose of the M2-F1 off of the ground for the first time on-tow. The speed was 86 miles per hour. The little craft seemed to bounce uncontrollably back and forth on the main landing gear, and stopped when he lowered
the nose to the ground. He tried again, but each time with the same results. He felt it was a landing gear problem that could
have caused the aircraft to roll on its back if he had lifted the main gear off of the ground.

Looking at movies of the tests, project engineers decided that the bouncing was probably caused by unwanted rudder
movements. They replaced flight control system number two in favor of number one, and the aircraft never bounced again.

Speeds on-tow inched up to 110 miles per hour, which allowed Thompson to climb to about 20 feet, then glide for about 20 seconds after releasing the line. That was the most that could be expected during an automobile tow.

In the spring of 1963 the M2-F1 was shipped to Ames Research Center, where it was mounted on 20-foot poles inside the 40
foot by 80-foot wind tunnel. For two weeks, Thompson, engineer Dick Eldredge, and inspector Ed Browne took turns "flying" it
as air blasted by at 135 miles per hour. They learned more about its flying qualities, and accumulated important data for the upcoming aerotows.

A NASA C-47 was used for all of the aerotows. The first was on August 16, 1963. The M2-F1 had recently been equipped with
an ejection seat and small rockets in the tail to extend the landing flare for about 5 seconds (if needed). Thompson prepared
for the flight with a few more tows behind the Pontiac.

Forward visibility in the M2-F1 was very limited on-tow, requiring Thompson to fly about 20 feet higher than the C-47 so he
could see the plane through the nose window. Towing speed was close to 100 miles per hour.

Tow release was at 12,000 feet. The lifting body descended at an average rate of 3600 feet-per-minute. At 1000 feet above the ground, the nose was lowered to increase speed to nearly 150 miles per hour, flare was at 200 feet from a 20-degree dive. The landing was smooth. The lifting body program was on its way.

The M2-F1 was flown until August 16, 1966. It proved the lifting body concept and led the way for subsequent, metal "heavyweight" designs. Chuck Yeager, Bruce Peterson, Don Mallick, Donald Sorlie, and Jerry Gentry also flew the M2-F1.

Lifting Bodies Fact Sheet
Testing the Lifting Bodies at Edwards by Robert G. Hoey.

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