NASA LIFTING BODY DOCUMENTARY "MAN IN SPACE" Part 2 of 2 30492
Made in 1966, this rarely seen documentary "Today, Tomorrow and Titan III" shows the U.S. Air Force and NASA's activities and research, and features test pilot Milton Orville Thompson's pioneering flights in the lifting bodies and Bill Dana's flights in the X-15 rocket plane. The Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) space station concept, put forward as part of an initiative to militarize space under the auspices of the USAF, is touched upon. Research efforts with lifting bodies (which might be used to resupply the MOL) including the M2-F1 and high speed aircraft including the X-15 rocket plane are shown at Edwards Air Force Base and the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. The film discusses the long-range plan to launch a lifting body into space aboard a Titan III booster so that eventually it could service the MOL. After the MOL program was shelved, the concept eventually ended up being adapted into the Space Shuttle program. The U-2 spy plane, SR-71 Blackbird are seen at the 06:40:00 mark, and early VTOL aircraft at 07:00:00. At the 00:12:00:00 mark the X-15 is shown.
The Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL), originally referred to as the Manned Orbital Laboratory, was part of the United States Air Force's manned spaceflight program, a successor to the cancelled Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar military reconnaissance space plane project. The project was developed from several early Air Force and NASA concepts of manned space stations to be used for reconnaissance purposes. MOL evolved into a single-use laboratory, with which crews would be launched on 40-day missions and return to Earth using a Gemini B spacecraft, derived from NASA's Project Gemini.
The MOL program was announced to the public on 10 December 1963 as a manned platform to prove the utility of man in space for military missions. Astronauts selected for the program were later told of the reconnaissance mission for the program. MOL was cancelled in 1969, during the height of the Apollo program, when it was shown that unmanned reconnaissance satellites could achieve the same objectives much more cost-effectively. U.S. space station development was instead pursued with the civilian NASA Skylab (Apollo Applications Program) which flew in the mid-1970s.
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 a program to build a lightweight, unpowered lifting body prototype. It featured a plywood shell placed over a tubular steel frame crafted at Dryden. Construction was completed in 1963.
Milton Orville Thompson (May 4, 1926 - August 6, 1993), (Lt Cmdr, USNR), better known as Milt Thompson, was an American naval officer and aviator, engineer, and NASA research pilot who was selected as an astronaut for the United States Air Force X-20 Dyna-Soar program in April 1960. After the Dyna-Soar program was cancelled on 10 December 1963, he remained a NASA research pilot, and went on to fly the X-15 rocket plane. He became Chief Engineer and Director of Research Projects during a long career at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center.
William Harvey "Bill" Dana (November 3, 1930 - May 6, 2014) was an American aeronautical engineer, U.S. Air Force pilot, NASA test pilot, and astronaut in the X-20 Dyna-Soar, and North American X-15 programs.
The Titan IIIA was a prototype rocket booster, which consisted of a standard Titan II rocket with a Transtage upper stage. The Titan IIIB with its different versions (23B, 24B, 33B, and 34B) had the Titan III core booster with an Agena D upper stage. This combination was used to launch the KH-8 GAMBIT series of intelligence-gathering satellites. They were all launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, due south over the Pacific into polar orbits. Their maximum payload mass was about 7,500 lb (3,000 kg).
This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2K. For more information visit www.PeriscopeFilm.com
Пікірлер: 28
The reason there's no footage of the M2-F2's actual drop from the B-52 on the first flight is my grandfather, Victor Horton's fault. He was flying as Launch Panel Operator that day and was so excited about seeing it fly, he forgot to flip the camera switch! Whoops! He got kidded about it mercilessly. A few weeks later, after the briefing for the second flight, FRC engineers Wen Painter and Berwin Koch approached him and amongst titters of laughter from all assembled, presented him with a small box with a wooden handle attached that was labeled, "Launch Panel Camera Switch Simulator." Curious, Grandpa pulled the handle, the box popped open and a banana rolled out. The room exploded with howls of laughter. Grandpa picked up the banana, threw it at Painter and Koch and stormed out. This was only a fee years after chimps had been trained to fly the Mercury spacecraft; correct actions had been rewarded with bananas. Plus, bananas were my grandfather's favorite fruit.
@mline250
11 ай бұрын
That’s hilarious. A great time to live.
Great video. I think that could be Barbara Cress Lawrence, wife of Major Robert Lawrence, the first African-American selected for an Astronaut program (USAF MOL Group 3), shown in the footage at 9:52 and 10:56. Major Lawrence was a student at the School when this film was made.
Thanks for posting. There can never be enough aerospace history online.
@PeriscopeFilm >>> *THANK YOU* for posting both parts of this!
@PeriscopeFilm
2 жыл бұрын
Love our channel? Help us save and post more orphaned films! Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/PeriscopeFilm Even a really tiny contribution can make a difference.
Great find. I love the optimistic predictions for intercontinental ballistic travel and lifting body re-entry vehicles. To date, there have only been a few. The successful Space Shuttle, Buran, X37b and SpaceShipOne. I doubt however, that's what NASA had in mind.
While these guys were setting speed records at Edwards, some of the working stiffs at Edwards (technicians, mechanics, engineers) would set speed records with their cars. Back in 1980s talking with a electronics technician who been at Edwards for past 30 years said he set a "speed record" going from Edwards to Lancaster in 20 minutes (or some phenomenal short amount of time), distance is about 45 miles. At the time no freeways but all the roads were straight with intersecting roads at 90 degrees. He floored his car to 125 mph, perfected a way to skid through to make right or left turns at high speed. Him and his other friends challenged each other, he like to brag how he did it in 20 minutes (though he thought "what the F--- was I doing?!?"). Ah yes, and it took real men to drive cars fast like that metal dashboards and no seat belts (only pilots wore those in airplanes). Plus smoking cigarettes and drinking booze every night was the thing back then.
@erikreedy9397
5 жыл бұрын
Well said & absolutely correct. Those guys loved cars as much as they did high performance aircraft. Many could be found at El Mirage on the weekends with their hot rods. My grandfather & Milt Thompson had a habit of racing each other to work most mornings. They'd meet up at the railroad tracks on Rosamond Blvd and race east to the west gate. Joe Walker did it too for a bit until he got a traffic ticket in the process. Those guys would also fly the goony bird over the desert looking for junk cars to pull parts off of. Great time in aviation history with a great bunch of guys....
Fantastic find . Well done ! What the hell is that beast at 7:18 - looks like the wing is rotated back & it's doing about 20 knots relative to the deck !
I am quite surprised at how well those guys who flew the lifting bodies could walk.... considering the MASSIVE balls they had.....
@usethenoodle
2 жыл бұрын
I believe they pushed their balls around in a shopping cart.
... And then he will crash and become the Six Million Dollar Man..... (it was this plane wiping out on landing that was used in the intro)
@chinatype2bassrocker809
4 жыл бұрын
The actual plane was the m2f2 piloted by Bruce Peterson. He survived the crash but lost an eye.
I love that squeaky chair holy s*** that was the best. I remember hearing one of those. With alien friend Jesus
These guys seem happy to be alive, better then giant Leapers back from moon.
George McFly at minute 16:00!
Like Buzz Lightyear. Falling with style. These pilots had the biggest cajones in the AF.
How, in which aircraft, could these fearless test pilots practice for these "flights" as they simply seem to fall out of the sky?! Later Shuttle pilots would practice approaches in a Gulfstream G-3 with the engines in reverse! How could these guys actually practice for such incredible flight parameters?
At about 05:05 in this video: That was the basis for the motion picture *MAROONED* from 1969.
Can anybody tell me what the under fuselage 'pod' which is jetisoned prior too landing is for, i think it is released for 'ground clearance', but in flight what was it's purpose?
@JIMJAMSC
Жыл бұрын
There was a vertical tail as well as a bottom one as the X-15 has bad stability issues. Thats also why the tail was so thick and the end was so wide. The bottom tail was jet as seen in the vid. Not sure about a pod.
@Airsally
Жыл бұрын
Could have been an experiment attached as a pod. The lower tail was a ventrial fin
Damn thing flys like a torpedo 😳
was it some federal law or something that required most 1960s NASA docs to have cheeeeezy bongo drums for the soundtrack??
@lukestrawwalker
2 жыл бұрын
Hey that's what was COOL back then, man! Ain't you ever seen an early Bond film?? Bongo drums everywhere, man! Later! OL J R :)
"Astronaut BILL DANA????" SERIOUSLY????????
Squint and it looks like a Shuttle landing.