Wingless Flight: The Lifting Body Story

by R. Dale Reed

Most lifting bodies, or “flying bathtubs” as they were called, were so ugly only an engineer could love them, and yet, what an elegant way to keep wings from burning off in supersonic flight between earth and orbit. Working in their spare time (because they couldn’t initially get official permission), Dale Reed and his team of engineers demonstrated the potential of the design that led to the Space Shuttle. Wingless Flight takes us behind the scenes with just the right blend of technical detail and fascinating detail (the crash of M2-F2 found new life as the opening credit for TV’s “The Six Million Dollar Man”). The flying bathtub, itself, is finding new life as the proposed escape-pod for the Space Station.

Genres: History

256 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1997

Reviews

[Craig Beyers · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was aware of the overall elements of the lifting body programs, but none of the details. Reed’s book filled in the details on the different lifting bodies, the pilots, and the flights. I enjoyed the discussions about how the lifting body programs affected and influenced design decisions for the Space Shuttle vehicle, concluding that without the lifting body programs’ maturity, the Shuttle design decisions might have been different or occurred later in the design/development program.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

a excellent summary of lifting body history written by an engineer at the center of it all.