Martin Marietta X-24B
| X-24B | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| The X-24B in flight | |
| Role | Lifting body |
| Manufacturer | Martin Marietta |
| First flight | 1 August 1973 |
| Retired | 26 November 1975 |
| Status | Out of service |
| Primary users |
United States Air Force NASA |
| Number built | 1 (rebuilt X-24A) |
| Developed from | Martin Marietta X-24A |
The Martin Marietta X-24B was an experimental US aircraft developed from a joint USAF-NASA program named PILOT (1963–1975). It was designed and built to test lifting body concepts, experimenting with the concept of unpowered reentry and landing, later used by the Space Shuttle. The X-24 was drop launched from a modified B-52 Stratofortress at high altitudes before igniting its rocket engine; after expending its rocket fuel, the pilot would glide the X-24 to an unpowered landing.
The X-24 was one of a group of lifting bodies flown by the NASA Flight Research Center (now Armstrong Flight Research Center) in a joint program with the U.S. Air Force at Edwards Air Force Base in California from 1963 to 1975. The lifting bodies were used to demonstrate the ability of pilots to maneuver and safely land wingless vehicles designed to fly back to Earth from space and be landed like an airplane at a predetermined site.
The X-24B's design evolved from a family of potential reentry shapes, each with higher lift-to-drag ratios, proposed by the Air Force Flight Dynamics Laboratory. To reduce the costs of constructing a research vehicle, the Air Force returned the X-24A to the Martin Marietta Corporation (as Martin Aircraft Company became after a merger) for modifications that converted its bulbous shape into one resembling a "flying flatiron"—rounded top, flat bottom, and a double-delta planform that ended in a pointed nose.
First to fly the X-24B was John Manke, in a glide flight on 1 August 1973. He was also the pilot on the first powered mission, on 15 November 1973.
There were a variety of "X-24C" proposals floated between 1972 and 1978. Perhaps the most notable was a Lockheed Skunk Works design, the L-301, which was to use scramjets to reach a top speed of Mach 8.
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