X-24B Launch from B-52 Mothership

This 47-second video from 1974 shows the X-24B launching from the B-52 mothership and performing a successful test flight over California’s Mojave Desert. A fleet of lifting bodies flown at the NASA Flight Research Center (now Armstrong), Edwards, CA, from 1963 to 1975 demonstrated the ability of pilots to maneuver in the atmosphere and safely land a wingless vehicle. These lifting bodies were designed so they could fly back to Earth from space and be landed like an aircraft at a pre-determined site. In 1962, FRC Director Paul Bikle approved a program to build a lightweight, unpowered lifting body as a prototype to flight test the wingless concept. It would look like a “flying bathtub,“ and was designated the M2-F1. It featured a plywood shell, built by Gus Briegleb (a sailplane builder from El Mirage, CA) placed over a tubular steel frame crafted at the FRC. Construction was completed in 1963. The success of the Flight Research Center M2-F1 program led to NASA development and construction of two heavywei