My uncle Ted worked for Ames in the late 60's and when i visited him in 1969 he was gracious enough to give several wind tunnel models, including an Apollo command capsule and a lifting body. I have them right now on my shelf in front of me. California in the 1960's was a marvelous place.
Your Uncle knew you had an appreciation for something so incredibly special in his own life, and knew he could entrust them to you. May your family never fail to treasure that which affected your Uncle’s life in such an intricate way. 👍🏼
Sweet Jesus! From someone who is absolutely obsessed with the subject, I would have killed to have a day or two talking with him and learning what I can. To have actual artifacts from this program is like a Holy Grail. You're a lucky man, my friend.
You need to get in touch with Mr. Mike Machat, an aviation artist and historian with his own highly regarded YT channel, "Celebrating Aviation With Mike Machat". This would make an interesting episode.
The problem with many K - 12 schools is the reliance on mindless memorization of minute easy to test for details like dates / places rather than the aura of what happened. If only schools followed the THG format by giving students broad , time limited exposure to topics. Every few weeks the assignment would be to pick a topic the student is interested in and do further research for a short discussion. While this might be more difficult to test for, the outcome would be far better for the student. This would kind of follow the 3M 15 % rule.
I was waiting for the Steve Austin reference, you don't disappoint! There was also a similar Boeing project called Dyna-Soar that was cancelled before the first flight. The X-37B has made several flights to space and landed autonomously. I'm waiting for the Dream Chaser to make orbit soon.
It's looking like Dream Chaser has been pushed back to Dec 2023 for its demo CRS flight. It's unknown if Vulcan Centaur will do a dummy payload for its 2nd certification flight or wait until Dream Chaser flies. The Vulcan Centaur is currently scheduled for May the Fourth, if testing continues to go well.
Caught the reference, too. I've always wondered, if they remade the TV series today, if they would have to rename it. $6 million doesn't go as far today as it did 50 years ago.
Some years ago (1980’s maybe) I was driving around Moffett Field/Ames and saw a white shape I recognized as what I knew as a Dyna-Soar. It was probably a test shape for wind tunnel testing. It’s great to have more of the backstory from the always interesting History Guy.
Like many my age I was fascinated by The Six Million Dollar Man and was always amazed by the crash scene in the opening. Years later I looked it up and learned about lifting bodies. Several of them were made with different body styles but the M2-F1 in this video was probably the most well-known.
BRAVO!! One of your best episodes ever. For its obscurity, rareness and humor. And of course, there is tragedy involved too. An absolute shame that Mr. Bickle's individualism, creativity and willingness to take professional risk is extinct. We are the worse for its absence.
Thanks so much for this episode. The story of the M2- F1 is one of my favorites. Interestingly, the team worked in a corner of a hanger blocked off with tarps and a sign reading "Wrights Bicycle Shop". BTW I have the same shuttle astronaut as you in my collection, as well as a copy of Reeds book.
Probably one of the best (theatrical) depictions of this type of craft was in the 1969 movie "Marooned" staring Gene Hackman, James Franciscus, Gregory Peck among others. (Great cast) where the vehicle was used to rescue an Apollo crew from being stranded or "Marooned" in space. I got to see that film in the movies as a kid. I was absolutely hooked on the space program at that point!
Great video. FYI...the new lifting body vehicle by Sierra Nevada is called "Dreamchaser", not "Dreamcatcher". They iterated an old Soviet design known as the Mig 105.
As the daughter of a NASA aerospace engineer who retired after 30 years with NASA in 1988, I appreciated the nod to the ingenuous, innovative and daring men and women who pursued this idea. Thank you for giving them the spotlight!
Marvelous episode! Add this to the sadly long list of inspired innovations that most reckon could not happen now. But every field from science to the arts has these periodic windows when remarkable advances can happen. What the aviation writer Richard Bach used to call, "running from safety."
My father and our family flew sailplanes at El Mirage airport. I was 7 or 8 years old and I remember Paul Bickel, as a sailplane pilot and Gus Briegleb, and family building the m2 in the hanger at El Mirage airport. I saw the M2 at the museum in July of 2021. I was told the Pontiac is being restored. Thanks for the memories.
The Apollo and Gemini capsules did have some steering capability. The center of mass was deliberately offset from the center of lift (and the capsules did have some lift). They could roll the spacecraft to change the relationship between the two, letting them move the touchdown point uprange or downrange and having a small cross-range capability.
My Father helped build the Muroc Maru Wooden Japanese Target Cruiser, and the U. S Navy Radar Training Ship there at Lake Muroc. In the 1950s he worked on Guided Missile , Drone and Ejection Seat 💺 Projects there. The Airmen and Civilian Contractors used to Race Hot Rods and Motorcycles there as well.
Great video as always History Guy! I enjoy studying the X-15, the flying bathtub & all experimental projects that took us into space, the moon & to the space shuttles.
AS an US Army officer in the early 70's I was assigned to NASA Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB in the flight simulation group. One of my favorite things to do was to watch the M2-F2 test flights. They would drop it from a B52 at 40,000 feet and it rocket itself to 80,000 feet. Four minutes later it would be landing on the dry lake bed. Bruce Peterson no longer flew jets for NASA after his accident. He was Project Manager on the first Digital Fly By Wire airplane. A project that I worked on for my time there. One thing that you did not mention was that Paul Bikle was an accomplished glider pilot. For 25 years he held the record for the highest altitude in an unpiloted sail plane (46267 feet). This may have encouraged him sponsor the M2-F1 project.
I remember researching this project when I was designing a space plane. There were books about it, but I was focused on the NASA Engineering and Test Reports, so I never got around to reading them. This is why I love these stories, your channel, but channels like it. Filling out the background of things I know about, and covering things I've never heard of. Thank you. 👍
Everything about this channel is great... the research, the presentation, the accompanying photos and videos, and, of course, the History Guys' fantastic oratory skills. If you want to learn something new every day, this is wonderful place to do it!
I remember reading about the Lifting Body project in Air & Space magazine as a kid, it always stuck with me as one of the most brilliant and improbable ideas. This shoestring lark of a side project eventually contributed the lion's share of data needed to build the Space Shuttle. The later lifting body aircraft I believe were also tested in western Utah, out of the same field in Wendover, NV where the B-29 crews trained to drop the first atomic weapons.
I wish I had known that you were doing a video on the M2-F1. My father conducted the restoration of the vehicle in the 90s. I could have arranged for you to speak with him!
It is really cool to have an episode so closely tied to my childhood, Dale Reed was a close family friend that I spent many weekends flying model airplanes with. I also knew the Bikles as a child, but only just remember them. There was a large group of NASA people that vacations together at Pismo beach every summer and Mr. and Mrs. Bikle looked after my brother and I now and them.
14:13 You mention the “cutting edge” Dream Chaser lifting body, but it is in fact very closely based on a mid 1960s design from the Soviet lifting body program. I always like this thought experiment: In 2023 We are now as far away in years from 1962 as 1962 was from 1903 when the Wright brothers first achieved powered flight. In 1962 the still “futuristic” looking Lockheed A-12 Mach 3+ reconnaissance aircraft flew for the first time!
Excellent retelling of forgotten history events. I recently remarked how the "flying bathtub" concept was being reconsidered and I'm pleased to see that I'm not the only one who remembers our dreams of the future that began in past.
As always, that was an incredible history lesson and video. I was born in 1958 and grew up in the 60s and 70s. I was always amazed and enthusiastic about space travel. In that time I built many models of spacecraft and aircraft. One of those I remember being called the Dyna lifting body. Of course, every kid growing up in the 60s dreamed of being an astronaut but unfortunately that dream did not come to a realization for me me. But I still had a successful career and now am enjoying retirement.
Thanks History Guy! Was fortunate enough to be stationed at Edwards in the mid 70s. Our group supplied NASA with radar, photographic, theodolite data for the X-24B, the last of the experimental lifting bodies. The X-24B's approach was shockingly steep and that brought to mind how ballsy and skilled those pilots were. Little known fact: Our group's video IS the crash sequence for the six million dollar man. Of course hearing the real understated audio from our tapes contrasted sharply from the "Hollywood" overstated version...
I was a fueler in the USAF at Edwards in the early 70's I fueled the B52 that carried the next generation of the lifting body many times. It was amazing to se this really small test craft land at something like 320 MPH, with no chance of a "go around". Talk about having the right stuff!
Peter k I was working at Boeing in 1959 on Bomarc and remember a very short lived program called Dana Soar a lifting body design later dubbed the x-20 Space plane for the Air Force. The project lasted from November 1959 till it was canceled December 1963.
Excellent coverage of a cutting edge test program. I really enjoyed seeing Bruce Peterson's picture near the end. I worked with him years later on the B2 program where he was a system safety engineer. Sadly he passed away shortly after his retirement from that program.
Back in the early 60s, my dad was a project manager at Boeing in Seattle on a project called "Dyna Soar". This was the original project for the Space Shuttle and this aircraft. In 1966 the miliary dropped the funding, my dad was laid off, and we moved to California where he started working for Lockheed
My favorite was The Dyna-Soar program (System 464L), initiated on October 10, 1957, took three separate, but related studies on manned, hypersonic weapons and reconnaissance systems (Hywards (SR-131), Bomi/Brass Bell (SR-12) and Robo (SR-126)) and merged them into a single, three-phased program. The research conducted, knowledge gained and the technological advances made during the course of program (1957-1963), would be applied to the X-15 test program, both of which would help guide later experimental test vehicles like the X-40 and X-37 as well as the development of the Space Shuttle orbiter.
I was in grade school in the 1960s and saw a film during science class about this aircraft featuring the convertible towing it into flight. I had no idea so much effort went into the details of souping up the car to get the horsepower it needed. In the film it looked like just a regular car on a Sunday drive. As always with the history guy, I think I know everything about a subject until the history guy shows me that I really had no idea!😂
Great account. Two gaffes: The Space Shuttle leverages some lifting-body tech but isn't a true one. And the Sierra Space lifting body spaceplane was mispronounced as "Dream Catcher" when its name is the "Dream Chaser."
Great retrospective as usual. I really enjoy your posts. Small correction - Sierra Nevada’s craft is the Dream Chaser not Dream Catcher and the cargo version is set to fly this year. They are planning a manned version to fly later.
EXCELLENT episode. I particularly liked the paper airplane "lifting body" intro. Keep it up, History Guy, this is the sort of content that keeps bringing me back to RUclips.
I remember back in the late '60's seeing a variety of models lying around outside of the Ames wind tunnel, including one in the shape of the "bathtub". It was only about 6-10 feet long, but definitly that shape.
Your discussion of Paul Bickle was interesting. Paul held the world altitude record in gliders for years. Gus Briegleb was also a very well known glider designer and builder, with several glider models to his credit. Your description of the Pontiac tow car is reminiscent of the tow cars we used for auto launches of gliders in the day. Another thing Paul took from his glider experience.
When learning to fly a plane, you gain a feeling for how wings give you lift, they keep you aloft and not crashing in to the ground. So when I imaging plying a plane with no wing, I get a falling feeling in the pit of my stomach. Figuring out how to get lift without wings? A freaking miracle!
Great episode. Thank you for the nod to Steve Austin as well. I was a young teenager when that show came out and got me totally hooked on the lifting body program. Read as much as I could find on them. Keep episodes like this coming HG!
I know I read about the flying bathtub at some point, but I don't recall having ever seen more than a black and white photo of it. There are so many of these things that I was interested in as a kid, but forgot about as I got older...thanks for reminding me that those things are still out there to be learned about. There are other channels that talk about these things, but many of them are dull and uninteresting--your videos always pull me in, and I don't notice the time going by.
Having almost 50 years of Radio Control experience in designing and flying normal and weird aircraft I can appreciate what the designers and builders of the flying bathtub did. At the local flying field the other fliers would kid me about all the weird aircraft I created.and flew. But they always knew I was the go to guy to look over and test new airplanes.
What a great episode! I've always admired the 'can do' attitude of the engineers, pilots, and support personnel at Edwards. We are the better off for it. Well done!
Dad helped build the XP-59 and the Y Jobs. They put wooden Propellers to disguise them from Spies on the Nose! He worked on Bells 🔔 early Helicopters too. The Helicopters were developed in a Barn in Pennsylvania.
Speaking of lifting bodies, please do an episode on the combination airship & lifting body prototype Aereon 26, as lovingly depicted in John McPhee's short book "The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed". It is quite a compelling story of opportunities lost which definitely deserves to be remembered. The most successful and last of their working prototypes resides in a tiny Air Victory Museum a few miles from here. Had they been successful in other ways the plan was to build gigantic versions of it which would have changed both air & ground transportation forever.
@@Hongobogologomo Monkey raids... lifting bodies...ouch. More than that. More than just ouch. Children probably were involved. A grown man would pee then run the best they could. Not at the monkey either, away from them. While all peeing. I'm guessing about how it might be though. Thankfully. I fed a wild caged monkey a few times at age 11 back in the late 60's. Every time I got close with the pealed bananas his long arm exploded from the bars of his tiny cage and snatched it from my hand before I could even see it. It was a strong arm, I could tell that much. Like young Mike Tyson. Not old rapist Mike Tyson. Free that monkey and multiply it, then have it raid my town and I'd more than forget I had a bladder. I agree with you. Yes, I'd too would enjoy a bit of that history that should be remembered, or at least recalled while remembering some other historic trauma. Thanks Hongo. Dang if that don't kinda sound like a monkey's name right there! "Hongo, wanna banana?" Forgive me please, and hello from Maine. That was just me being "I Bee Fun Knee", which I also honestly RUclips 2nd channel am. Thanks for that decent idea you shared. I hope that it does happen.
Saw a few "lifting bodies" as they called them at Edwards AFB in a hangar about 1971. I was in ROTC and we were on a tour. Very cool. You don't ever hear about them.
You mentioned the P-59 toward the beginning of this video. I did a research paper in high school on the history and development of the jet fighter. In doing my research for that paper, I ran across a hilarious story involving the P-59. Of course when testing of the P-59 first began, it was shrouded in secrecy and conducted at what is now Edwards AFB. So the story goes that one day, an Army Air Corps pilot stationed at the nearby USAAF barracks returned from logging some hours in his fighter and told a fantastic story. Apparently this pilot, who was not known for being a very truthful guy, came back to the barracks and told his fellow pilots that he had been out flying when he was passed by an aircraft with no propeller being flown by a gorilla smoking cigar. Of course, his fellow pilots laughed at him and passed it off as just another one of his ridiculous stories. However, it turns out he was actually telling the whole truth on this occasion. What he saw was the P-59 being flown by its chief test pilot (whose name I forget. I think it was Jack something), who enjoyed dressing up in gorilla costumes and also enjoyed smoking cigars. So on this particular day, the test pilot had gone up in the top secret jet wearing his gorilla costume and was smoking a cigar in the cockpit when he was spotted by a passing USAAF pilot. The test pilot probably figured he'd get away with it because even if someone did see him doing this and report it, no one would believe them.
A deep dive on Muroc would be cool, as it has a broad aviation AND land speed racing history. The American automotive performance aftermarket was basically launched in response to post WWII racing activities there.
awesome video. love the EVH frankenstein themed tie lol :) the fact they they set the car and motor up for peak operations at a certain speed is pure hot rodding.... that's taking the wheel diameter the rear axle ration the transmission gear ratios and the speed of the motor then girding the cam profiles for tat and selecting an intake manifold for that then fuel air mix spark timing.... not getting started with cylinder head/combustion chamber style and or volume nor piston bore or stroke these guys were friggen good lmao
Thank you for a most enlightening video. I knew about the lifting body and the Dyna-Soar programs, but not about the fascinating story of the first Tow vehicle. It would make a fun Docu-drama. Back on track; the one thing that can't be taught today at our engineering and flying schools is Intuition. The old post WW2 Engineers and Pilots had to rapidly develop that ability. I know it saved myself and my crews a few times. Thanks again.
It might be worth noting that Paul Bikle held the gliding world records for both absolute altitude (46,269 ft) and altitude gained (42,305 ft) from 1961 until 1986. Towing behind a car off nearby Rosamond Dry Lake was a common way to launch a glider. So from Bikle's point of view, it was probably just a scaling up of things he and the local soaring pilots (including Gus Briegleb over at El Mirage) already knew how to do.
Speaking of the Gemini capsule, there was a plan to fit it with a Rogallo Wing, a sort of parachute that is steerable as it descends. The capsule would be fitted with retracting landing skids too. But it was never produced.
My dad work for NASA at Edwards Air Force Base in the 60’s and 70’s until he retired in the early 80’s. We got to see lots of really cool and amazing stuff.
It is likely our dads knew each other. My dad(Richard ‘Dick’ Fischer) worked at Edwards (NASA) from 1965 until about 1980 when he transferred over to space shuttle.
@@BrianSFischer very possible my dads title was experimental electronic technician. My dads name was Jerry(Gerald)Perry. It is funny how sonic booms and rocket engine testing was everyday occurrence.
You said "Dream Catcher"... LOL at 4:11, that's the "Dream Chaser" made by Sierra Space. Great video... thank you!! Under construction at its Colorado headquarters and expected to launch in 2023 on the first of a series of NASA missions to the International Space Station, Dream Chaser can safely carry cargo - and eventually crew - to on-orbit destinations, returning to land on compatible commercial airport runways worldwide.
I'll probably be the only one pointing this out within the fascinating content and impeccable presentation. The cop detained an innocent driver to satisfy his own curiosity. It was a 4th amendment seizure w/o reasonable articulable suspicion, and then the driver good naturedly spills the beans on the entire project. Simpler times back then. With this anecdote, one can trace the modern LEOs contemptuous attitude towards citizenry all the way back to that curious cop from the 1960s.
It's worth remembering that old saw that the fastest way to stop a reaction is with the addition of Administratium 99. Your observation that the US has changed in such a way that something like this couldn't be done today. Ineffably sad, but true.
My uncle Ted worked for Ames in the late 60's and when i visited him in 1969 he was gracious enough to give several wind tunnel models, including an Apollo command capsule and a lifting body. I have them right now on my shelf in front of me. California in the 1960's was a marvelous place.
Those are worth a small fortune
Your Uncle knew you had an appreciation for something so incredibly special in his own life, and knew he could entrust them to you. May your family never fail to treasure that which affected your Uncle’s life in such an intricate way. 👍🏼
Sweet Jesus! From someone who is absolutely obsessed with the subject, I would have killed to have a day or two talking with him and learning what I can. To have actual artifacts from this program is like a Holy Grail. You're a lucky man, my friend.
You need to get in touch with Mr. Mike Machat, an aviation artist and historian with his own highly regarded YT channel, "Celebrating Aviation With Mike Machat". This would make an interesting episode.
Amazing piece's
I would liked to have had him as a history teacher. He's never boring!
He IS your history teacher
The problem with many K - 12 schools is the reliance on mindless memorization of minute easy to test for details like dates / places rather than the aura of what happened.
If only schools followed the THG format by giving students broad , time limited exposure to topics. Every few weeks the assignment would be to pick a topic the student is interested in and do further research for a short discussion. While this might be more difficult to test for, the outcome would be far better for the student.
This would kind of follow the 3M 15 % rule.
if he would be boring, then he would make a good geology teacher
I was waiting for the Steve Austin reference, you don't disappoint! There was also a similar Boeing project called Dyna-Soar that was cancelled before the first flight. The X-37B has made several flights to space and landed autonomously. I'm waiting for the Dream Chaser to make orbit soon.
It's looking like Dream Chaser has been pushed back to Dec 2023 for its demo CRS flight. It's unknown if Vulcan Centaur will do a dummy payload for its 2nd certification flight or wait until Dream Chaser flies. The Vulcan Centaur is currently scheduled for May the Fourth, if testing continues to go well.
Pitch is out! I can't hold altitude! She's breaking up, she's breaking up!
"We can rebuild it, make it better than before!" 👍
Caught the reference, too. I've always wondered, if they remade the TV series today, if they would have to rename it. $6 million doesn't go as far today as it did 50 years ago.
Some years ago (1980’s maybe) I was driving around Moffett Field/Ames and saw a white shape I recognized as what I knew as a Dyna-Soar. It was probably a test shape for wind tunnel testing. It’s great to have more of the backstory from the always interesting History Guy.
Thanks!
Thank you!
Like many my age I was fascinated by The Six Million Dollar Man and was always amazed by the crash scene in the opening. Years later I looked it up and learned about lifting bodies. Several of them were made with different body styles but the M2-F1 in this video was probably the most well-known.
BRAVO!! One of your best episodes ever. For its obscurity, rareness and humor. And of course, there is tragedy involved too. An absolute shame that Mr. Bickle's individualism, creativity and willingness to take professional risk is extinct. We are the worse for its absence.
Those risk-taking qualities are not extinct - they have simply moved into the private sector, SpaceX being perhaps the prime example.
Thanks so much for this episode. The story of the M2- F1 is one of my favorites. Interestingly, the team worked in a corner of a hanger blocked off with tarps and a sign reading "Wrights Bicycle Shop". BTW I have the same shuttle astronaut as you in my collection, as well as a copy of Reeds book.
Probably one of the best (theatrical) depictions of this type of craft was in the 1969 movie "Marooned" staring Gene Hackman, James Franciscus, Gregory Peck among others. (Great cast) where the vehicle was used to rescue an Apollo crew from being stranded or "Marooned" in space. I got to see that film in the movies as a kid. I was absolutely hooked on the space program at that point!
Then you'll love Plan 9 from Outer Space.
Listed as one of the worst movies of all time.
I forgot about that..launched through the eye of a hurricane. Yes, great movie.
@@thisismagacountry1318 "you people of earth are idiots!" love that movie Tim Burton recreated all the scenes from Plan 9 in 'Ed Wood'
Great video. FYI...the new lifting body vehicle by Sierra Nevada is called "Dreamchaser", not "Dreamcatcher". They iterated an old Soviet design known as the Mig 105.
As the daughter of a NASA aerospace engineer who retired after 30 years with NASA in 1988, I appreciated the nod to the ingenuous, innovative and daring men and women who pursued this idea. Thank you for giving them the spotlight!
A great look back at a wonderful part of space exploration history. Made all the more relevant by the new craft being developed today. Thank you!
Marvelous episode! Add this to the sadly long list of inspired innovations that most reckon could not happen now. But every field from science to the arts has these periodic windows when remarkable advances can happen. What the aviation writer Richard Bach used to call, "running from safety."
My father and our family flew sailplanes at El Mirage airport. I was 7 or 8 years old and I remember Paul Bickel, as a sailplane pilot and Gus Briegleb, and family building the m2 in the hanger at El Mirage airport. I saw the M2 at the museum in July of 2021. I was told the Pontiac is being restored. Thanks for the memories.
The Apollo and Gemini capsules did have some steering capability. The center of mass was deliberately offset from the center of lift (and the capsules did have some lift). They could roll the spacecraft to change the relationship between the two, letting them move the touchdown point uprange or downrange and having a small cross-range capability.
As an MP on Camp Foster, I pulled over someone driving a recreation of Kit from Knight Rider. We are just curious about these cars, people!
My Father helped build the Muroc Maru Wooden Japanese Target Cruiser, and the U. S Navy Radar Training Ship there at Lake Muroc. In the 1950s he worked on Guided Missile , Drone and Ejection Seat 💺 Projects there. The Airmen and Civilian Contractors used to Race Hot Rods and Motorcycles there as well.
Great video as always History Guy! I enjoy studying the X-15, the flying bathtub & all experimental projects that took us into space, the moon & to the space shuttles.
AS an US Army officer in the early 70's I was assigned to NASA Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB in the flight simulation group. One of my favorite things to do was to watch the M2-F2 test flights. They would drop it from a B52 at 40,000 feet and it rocket itself to 80,000 feet. Four minutes later it would be landing on the dry lake bed. Bruce Peterson no longer flew jets for NASA after his accident. He was Project Manager on the first Digital Fly By Wire airplane. A project that I worked on for my time there. One thing that you did not mention was that Paul Bikle was an accomplished glider pilot. For 25 years he held the record for the highest altitude in an unpiloted sail plane (46267 feet). This may have encouraged him sponsor the M2-F1 project.
Many of us grew up then , and heard of the derided "bathtub." Little did we know how important it's contributions would be. Thank you for this.
shivering black bell thumbs up! I have been trying to watch at least 3 episodes a week of current and older! so glad I found this channel.
You are the coolest history teacher ever. The fact that they used a Pontiac makes me so happy
I remember researching this project when I was designing a space plane. There were books about it, but I was focused on the NASA Engineering and Test Reports, so I never got around to reading them. This is why I love these stories, your channel, but channels like it. Filling out the background of things I know about, and covering things I've never heard of.
Thank you. 👍
Everything about this channel is great... the research, the presentation, the accompanying photos and videos, and, of course, the History Guys' fantastic oratory skills. If you want to learn something new every day, this is wonderful place to do it!
My father was one of the supervisors of the camera range during the early testing of the lifting body tests.
Dream chaser, not dream catcher.
Excellent video, and even has some info in it I didn't know.
I remember reading about the Lifting Body project in Air & Space magazine as a kid, it always stuck with me as one of the most brilliant and improbable ideas. This shoestring lark of a side project eventually contributed the lion's share of data needed to build the Space Shuttle.
The later lifting body aircraft I believe were also tested in western Utah, out of the same field in Wendover, NV where the B-29 crews trained to drop the first atomic weapons.
Doing something that’s never been done before…that sums it up beautifully! Great video as always History Guy!
It is what Elon Musk dotes on. hence landing rockets for reuse, and building Starship SuperHeavy boosters.
I wish I had known that you were doing a video on the M2-F1. My father conducted the restoration of the vehicle in the 90s. I could have arranged for you to speak with him!
It is really cool to have an episode so closely tied to my childhood, Dale Reed was a close family friend that I spent many weekends flying model airplanes with. I also knew the Bikles as a child, but only just remember them. There was a large group of NASA people that vacations together at Pismo beach every summer and Mr. and Mrs. Bikle looked after my brother and I now and them.
Did you ever meet my grandfather, Vic Horton?
14:13 You mention the “cutting edge” Dream Chaser lifting body, but it is in fact very closely based on a mid 1960s design from the Soviet lifting body program.
I always like this thought experiment: In 2023 We are now as far away in years from 1962 as 1962 was from 1903 when the Wright brothers first achieved powered flight. In 1962 the still “futuristic” looking Lockheed A-12 Mach 3+ reconnaissance aircraft flew for the first time!
Excellent retelling of forgotten history events. I recently remarked how the "flying bathtub" concept was being reconsidered and I'm pleased to see that I'm not the only one who remembers our dreams of the future that began in past.
As always, that was an incredible history lesson and video. I was born in 1958 and grew up in the 60s and 70s. I was always amazed and enthusiastic about space travel. In that time I built many models of spacecraft and aircraft. One of those I remember being called the Dyna lifting body. Of course, every kid growing up in the 60s dreamed of being an astronaut but unfortunately that dream did not come to a realization for me me. But I still had a successful career and now am enjoying retirement.
Thanks History Guy! Was fortunate enough to be stationed at Edwards in the mid 70s. Our group supplied NASA with radar, photographic, theodolite data for the X-24B, the last of the experimental lifting bodies. The X-24B's approach was shockingly steep and that brought to mind how ballsy and skilled those pilots were. Little known fact: Our group's video IS the crash sequence for the six million dollar man. Of course hearing the real understated audio from our tapes contrasted sharply from the "Hollywood" overstated version...
I was a fueler in the USAF at Edwards in the early 70's I fueled the B52 that carried the next generation of the lifting body many times. It was amazing to se this really small test craft land at something like 320 MPH, with no chance of a "go around". Talk about having the right stuff!
Thank you. I look forward to gaining new knowledge. You provide what I would never have gotten in school. Keep up the good work. Again thank you.
Of all the re-runs available, I'm surprised that The six million dollar man has not been streamed for us old boys lol.
All the TV movies and all 5 seasons are on Peacock
@@kevinmacdougall6665 Really? Cool!
@TgWags Yep plus they're all available on DVD and Blu Ray now with great Bonus Features
Cool flying bathtub and all but the Pontiac Catalina stole the show for me. I think my new dream car is one that has towed a spaceship.
Peter k
I was working at Boeing in 1959 on Bomarc and remember a very short lived program called Dana Soar a lifting body design
later dubbed the x-20 Space plane for the Air Force. The project lasted from November 1959 till it was canceled December 1963.
Excellent coverage of a cutting edge test program. I really enjoyed seeing Bruce Peterson's picture near the end. I worked with him years later on the B2 program where he was a system safety engineer. Sadly he passed away shortly after his retirement from that program.
Amazing thank you to THG🎀
Great vid! I ALWAYS enjoy your content.
Back in the early 60s, my dad was a project manager at Boeing in Seattle on a project called "Dyna Soar". This was the original project for the Space Shuttle and this aircraft. In 1966 the miliary dropped the funding, my dad was laid off, and we moved to California where he started working for Lockheed
My favorite was The Dyna-Soar program (System 464L), initiated on October 10, 1957, took three separate, but related studies on manned, hypersonic weapons and reconnaissance systems (Hywards (SR-131), Bomi/Brass Bell (SR-12) and Robo (SR-126)) and merged them into a single, three-phased program. The research conducted, knowledge gained and the technological advances made during the course of program (1957-1963), would be applied to the X-15 test program, both of which would help guide later experimental test vehicles like the X-40 and X-37 as well as the development of the Space Shuttle orbiter.
Those little planes are super cute! :D
Thoroughly enjoyed this episode learning of the origins of this lifting body you always bring a more complete understanding to your topics.
It was a fascinating aircraft and an incredibly important step forward in lifting body vehicles in air and space.
14:10 "Dream Catcher"? Caught a boo-boo! GREAT video as always, sir! Thank you.
I was in grade school in the 1960s and saw a film during science class about this aircraft featuring the convertible towing it into flight. I had no idea so much effort went into the details of souping up the car to get the horsepower it needed. In the film it looked like just a regular car on a Sunday drive. As always with the history guy, I think I know everything about a subject until the history guy shows me that I really had no idea!😂
My grandfather, Vic Horton, was the project leader on the M2-F1, having been selected for the job by Dale Reed and FRC director, Paul Bikle.
Great account. Two gaffes: The Space Shuttle leverages some lifting-body tech but isn't a true one. And the Sierra Space lifting body spaceplane was mispronounced as "Dream Catcher" when its name is the "Dream Chaser."
Great job history guy, the lifting body is one of my favourite.
Great retrospective as usual. I really enjoy your posts. Small correction - Sierra Nevada’s craft is the Dream Chaser not Dream Catcher and the cargo version is set to fly this year. They are planning a manned version to fly later.
The "6-Million Dollar Man" reference gave me a chuckle.
ruclips.net/video/0CPJ-AbCsT8/видео.html
EXCELLENT episode. I particularly liked the paper airplane "lifting body" intro. Keep it up, History Guy, this is the sort of content that keeps bringing me back to RUclips.
I remember back in the late '60's seeing a variety of models lying around outside of the Ames wind tunnel, including one in the shape of the "bathtub". It was only about 6-10 feet long, but definitly that shape.
I appreciate you, thank you for making content.
Your discussion of Paul Bickle was interesting. Paul held the world altitude record in gliders for years. Gus Briegleb was also a very well known glider designer and builder, with several glider models to his credit. Your description of the Pontiac tow car is reminiscent of the tow cars we used for auto launches of gliders in the day. Another thing Paul took from his glider experience.
Ty from a fellow educator
Bet this guy was the best teacher hundreds of kids ever had
again Ty sir
When learning to fly a plane, you gain a feeling for how wings give you lift, they keep you aloft and not crashing in to the ground. So when I imaging plying a plane with no wing, I get a falling feeling in the pit of my stomach. Figuring out how to get lift without wings? A freaking miracle!
That episode was phenomenal!!!!!! You could have made another episode just on that Pontiac!!!! AWESOME!!!!!
Great stuff as always. As soon as I saw the thumbnail I was eager to see the Six Million Dollar Man tie in and you did not disappoint!
Another fun entry from THG.
Def one of the best content creators around.
Professor Geiger.... We really appreciate when you make the snarky, like, he was built devices 😅
You really make history fun. Thank you
The Flying Bathtub (M2-F1) was the stuff of dreams in my 8 year old mind back in 1963..........
Always loved the story of the "Flying Bathtub", thanks for providing another great look at this wonderful piece of NASA and aviation history. Bravo!
Great episode. Thank you for the nod to Steve Austin as well. I was a young teenager when that show came out and got me totally hooked on the lifting body program. Read as much as I could find on them. Keep episodes like this coming HG!
That’s what 6 million dollar man was flying when he got injured in the show’s opening credits.
"She's breaking up! She's breaking up!"
According to another commenter, yes
I immediately thought the same thing!
There must be some old farts commenting here. 😆 Lol
It was the M2-F2 that crashed and that was a follow on to the M2-F1.
They built their own early version of the Pontiac G.T.O. Great video. Thanks for posting
7:50 Go Bertha! Go Harriet! You girl did a great thing!😍
I know I read about the flying bathtub at some point, but I don't recall having ever seen more than a black and white photo of it. There are so many of these things that I was interested in as a kid, but forgot about as I got older...thanks for reminding me that those things are still out there to be learned about. There are other channels that talk about these things, but many of them are dull and uninteresting--your videos always pull me in, and I don't notice the time going by.
They should teach History like you do in our schools my friend. God Bless ya.
Having almost 50 years of Radio Control experience in designing and flying normal and weird aircraft I can appreciate what the designers and builders of the flying bathtub did. At the local flying field the other fliers would kid me about all the weird aircraft I created.and flew. But they always knew I was the go to guy to look over and test new airplanes.
What a great episode! I've always admired the 'can do' attitude of the engineers, pilots, and support personnel at Edwards. We are the better off for it. Well done!
Dad helped build the XP-59 and the Y Jobs. They put wooden Propellers to disguise them from Spies on the Nose! He worked on Bells 🔔 early Helicopters too. The Helicopters were developed in a Barn in Pennsylvania.
Speaking of lifting bodies, please do an episode on the combination airship & lifting body prototype Aereon 26, as lovingly depicted in John McPhee's short book "The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed". It is quite a compelling story of opportunities lost which definitely deserves to be remembered. The most successful and last of their working prototypes resides in a tiny Air Victory Museum a few miles from here. Had they been successful in other ways the plan was to build gigantic versions of it which would have changed both air & ground transportation forever.
Speaking of lifting bodies,I want a video about the monkey raids on villages in India. Monkey history please!
@@Hongobogologomo Monkey raids... lifting bodies...ouch. More than that. More than just ouch. Children probably were involved. A grown man would pee then run the best they could. Not at the monkey either, away from them. While all peeing. I'm guessing about how it might be though. Thankfully.
I fed a wild caged monkey a few times at age 11 back in the late 60's. Every time I got close with the pealed bananas his long arm exploded from the bars of his tiny cage and snatched it from my hand before I could even see it. It was a strong arm, I could tell that much. Like young Mike Tyson. Not old rapist Mike Tyson. Free that monkey and multiply it, then have it raid my town and I'd more than forget I had a bladder.
I agree with you. Yes, I'd too would enjoy a bit of that history that should be remembered, or at least recalled while remembering some other historic trauma. Thanks Hongo. Dang if that don't kinda sound like a monkey's name right there! "Hongo, wanna banana?" Forgive me please, and hello from Maine. That was just me being "I Bee Fun Knee", which I also honestly RUclips 2nd channel am. Thanks for that decent idea you shared. I hope that it does happen.
Saw a few "lifting bodies" as they called them at Edwards AFB in a hangar about 1971. I was in ROTC and we were on a tour. Very cool. You don't ever hear about them.
Wow, what a great episode.
Mr. Lance, I am convinced that your channel is (In My Humble Opinion) the best content on the Internet today.
My father worked at Ames for N.A.S.A. We got one of the models of this from the model shop that was a second. Not up to par. If only we had kept it.
Omg, I was hoping for a Steve Austin reference, but wasn’t sure it would happen. You made my day! 😃👍
That is a great story. Thanks for bringing it, THG!
You mentioned the P-59 toward the beginning of this video. I did a research paper in high school on the history and development of the jet fighter. In doing my research for that paper, I ran across a hilarious story involving the P-59. Of course when testing of the P-59 first began, it was shrouded in secrecy and conducted at what is now Edwards AFB. So the story goes that one day, an Army Air Corps pilot stationed at the nearby USAAF barracks returned from logging some hours in his fighter and told a fantastic story. Apparently this pilot, who was not known for being a very truthful guy, came back to the barracks and told his fellow pilots that he had been out flying when he was passed by an aircraft with no propeller being flown by a gorilla smoking cigar. Of course, his fellow pilots laughed at him and passed it off as just another one of his ridiculous stories. However, it turns out he was actually telling the whole truth on this occasion. What he saw was the P-59 being flown by its chief test pilot (whose name I forget. I think it was Jack something), who enjoyed dressing up in gorilla costumes and also enjoyed smoking cigars. So on this particular day, the test pilot had gone up in the top secret jet wearing his gorilla costume and was smoking a cigar in the cockpit when he was spotted by a passing USAAF pilot. The test pilot probably figured he'd get away with it because even if someone did see him doing this and report it, no one would believe them.
Interesting. This was just so interesting and relaxing. Reminds me of the TV show “Sunday Morning” back in the day.
A deep dive on Muroc would be cool, as it has a broad aviation AND land speed racing history.
The American automotive performance aftermarket was basically launched in response to post WWII racing activities there.
awesome video. love the EVH frankenstein themed tie lol :) the fact they they set the car and motor up for peak operations at a certain speed is pure hot rodding.... that's taking the wheel diameter the rear axle ration the transmission gear ratios and the speed of the motor then girding the cam profiles for tat and selecting an intake manifold for that then fuel air mix spark timing.... not getting started with cylinder head/combustion chamber style and or volume nor piston bore or stroke these guys were friggen good lmao
Thank you for a most enlightening video. I knew about the lifting body and the Dyna-Soar programs, but not about the fascinating story of the first Tow vehicle. It would make a fun Docu-drama. Back on track; the one thing that can't be taught today at our engineering and flying schools is Intuition. The old post WW2 Engineers and Pilots had to rapidly develop that ability. I know it saved myself and my crews a few times. Thanks again.
Liked this. Please, more about space travel and NASA
I was going to point out that fact about Steve Austin. Good job, THG.
It might be worth noting that Paul Bikle held the gliding world records for both absolute altitude (46,269 ft) and altitude gained (42,305 ft) from 1961 until 1986. Towing behind a car off nearby Rosamond Dry Lake was a common way to launch a glider. So from Bikle's point of view, it was probably just a scaling up of things he and the local soaring pilots (including Gus Briegleb over at El Mirage) already knew how to do.
The aircraft seen crashing in the "Six Million Dollar Man's" opening sequence was an M2-F2, a "lifting body configuration" built by Northrop.
Speaking of the Gemini capsule, there was a plan to fit it with a Rogallo Wing, a sort of parachute that is steerable as it descends. The capsule would be fitted with retracting landing skids too. But it was never produced.
Great shout out to my favorite TV show as a kid...SMDM
Thank you for making this channel Mr Guy. You are quite likely the coolest guy on the planet! 💖
My dad work for NASA at Edwards Air Force Base in the 60’s and 70’s until he retired in the early 80’s. We got to see lots of really cool and amazing stuff.
It is likely our dads knew each other. My dad(Richard ‘Dick’ Fischer) worked at Edwards (NASA) from 1965 until about 1980 when he transferred over to space shuttle.
@@BrianSFischer very possible my dads title was experimental electronic technician. My dads name was Jerry(Gerald)Perry. It is funny how sonic booms and rocket engine testing was everyday occurrence.
Ok.... Now I MUST see this Pontiac when it's restored! What a cool story!
You said "Dream Catcher"... LOL at 4:11, that's the "Dream Chaser" made by Sierra Space. Great video... thank you!! Under construction at its Colorado headquarters and expected to launch in 2023 on the first of a series of NASA missions to the International Space Station, Dream Chaser can safely carry cargo - and eventually crew - to on-orbit destinations, returning to land on compatible commercial airport runways worldwide.
I'll probably be the only one pointing this out within the fascinating content and impeccable presentation. The cop detained an innocent driver to satisfy his own curiosity. It was a 4th amendment seizure w/o reasonable articulable suspicion, and then the driver good naturedly spills the beans on the entire project. Simpler times back then. With this anecdote, one can trace the modern LEOs contemptuous attitude towards citizenry all the way back to that curious cop from the 1960s.
Outstanding as usual. Love this channel.
“She’s breaking up! She’s breaking up!” First thing I thought of when I saw today’s episode. 😆
An absolutely delightful story! Thank you, History Guy.
I remember reading about lifting bodies in a British magazine called Boys Own Paper. A rather weird holdover from The Age of The British Empire.
This is the early testing of the early Space Shuttle designs. I was very excited to see all the lifting body flight tests.
It's worth remembering that old saw that the fastest way to stop a reaction is with the addition of Administratium 99. Your observation that the US has changed in such a way that something like this couldn't be done today. Ineffably sad, but true.