NASA's M-2 F1 "Flying Bathtub"

 

1963: wind tunnel testsfirst flight |  NASA/Ames Research Center photo

1963: wind tunnel tests |  NASA/Ames Research Center photo

1963: wind tunnel tests |  NASA/Ames Research Center photo


1965: during the first flight tests | Popular Science Magazine | Zetu  Harrys collection

Some call it the "Flying Bathtub", but the proper name for this wingless curiosity is the M-2 lifting body (NASA M2-F1; with m standing for manned and f for flight). The famous test pilot Milt Thompson is seen (image above) at the control stick while vehicle is being towed to launch altitude of 13,000 feet. By 1965, he has flown it 45 times, but says every flight in the "bathtub" semms like a potential accident. It rocks like a boat in a choppy lake when it hits wind gusts during descent. While he's falling in a 30-degree flight path, the pilot loses 4,000 feet of altitude per minute, top speed 130 kn (150 mph, 240 km/h). Vechile is a plywood prototype od re-entry vehicles intended to enable astronauts to pilot their way home from orbit through the atmosphere to a safe landing ground.