All the heroes are dead

[ChristopherRobin]

The lifting bodies (and a certain 70's TV show of course) have always seemed slightly less than real to me. I was reading up on them when I found out that the actual pilot in the M2-F2 crash, Bruce Petersen, sadly died earlier this year. I'd like to think that Lee Majors sent a wreath, but I wouldn't count on it. Anyway, here are some videos of how it used to be done. (And yes, spotters, I know that most of them are of the HL-10!)

some approach (http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Movie/HL-10/480x/EM-0014-03.mov)!

and here (http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/gallery/movie/HL-10/480x/EM-0014-04.mov)

3 Greens (http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Movie/M2-F2/480x/EM-0021-02.mov)

and who could forget this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kevK6u0GvHk)

[Yellow Sun]

There is an excellent book on the Lifting Body Programme:

Flying Without Wings by Milton Thompson & Curtis Peebles
The publisher is Crecy but there is no ISBN No in my copy.

If you are interested in this era of research and test flying then this book is well worth acquiring.

YS

[DaveW]

The ISBN of the hardcover is 0947554785.

[GlosMikeP]

if you like that, you'll like these:

http://fluency.paintedtarget.org/classiccw/vehicles/wigevehicles.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekranoplan

and especially this:

http://www.boeing.com/news/frontiers/archive/2002/september/i_pw.html