{"id":27074181,"date":"2026-10-07T11:14:25","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T09:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/x-24b-lifting-body-runway-landing-space-shuttle-1975\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T11:15:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T09:15:11","slug":"x-24b-lifting-body-runway-landing-space-shuttle-1975","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/it\/x-24b-lifting-body-runway-landing-space-shuttle-1975\/","title":{"rendered":"X-24B Lifting Body: How a Wingless Plane Taught the Shuttle to Land"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\n<!-- mfsh:top -->\n\n<style>\n.mfsh-trigger{display:inline-flex;align-items:center;gap:10px;height:44px;padding:0 18px;margin:0 0 26px;border:2px solid 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On 5 August 1975, NASA test pilot John Manke brought the X-24B lifting body down from 60,000 feet without power and landed it on the concrete main runway at Edwards Air Force Base, right where he intended.<\/p>\n<p>It sounds like a stunt. It was one of the most important landings in the history of spaceflight. That single approach convinced NASA that a heavy, wingless re-entry vehicle could be flown to a precision landing without engines, and the Space Shuttle was built on that conclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n<div style=\"background:#f4f6f9;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:18px 22px;margin:8px 0 28px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 10px;font-weight:700;font-size:17px\">Quick Facts<\/p><ul style=\"margin:0;padding-left:20px;line-height:1.75\"><li><strong>Aircraft:<\/strong> Martin Marietta X-24B, rebuilt from the X-24A<\/li><li><strong>Nickname:<\/strong> The &ldquo;flying flatiron&rdquo;<\/li><li><strong>First flight:<\/strong> 1 August 1973 (glide), pilot John Manke<\/li><li><strong>Flights:<\/strong> 36 in total, 12 glide and 24 powered, 1973 to 1975<\/li><li><strong>Top speed:<\/strong> 1,164 mph (Mach 1.76); maximum altitude about 74,100 ft<\/li><li><strong>Engine:<\/strong> Reaction Motors XLR11 rocket, 9,800 lbf thrust<\/li><li><strong>Today:<\/strong> On display at the National Museum of the US Air Force, Dayton, Ohio<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">What Is a Lifting Body?<\/h2>\n<p>A lifting body generates lift from the shape of its fuselage rather than from wings. For a vehicle coming back from space, that is attractive: wings are heavy, they get hot during re-entry, and they are hard to protect. A lifting body can survive re-entry like a capsule, yet still fly and land like an aircraft.<\/p>\n<p>The catch is that lifting bodies glide like bricks. Their lift-to-drag ratio is low, so they come down steeply and fast, and there is no going around for a second try. From the 1960s, NASA and the US Air Force flew a whole family of them at Edwards, including the M2-F2, HL-10 and X-24A, to find out whether pilots could handle them.<\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/x-24a-bulbous-lifting-body-1968.jpg\" alt=\"The bulbous X-24A lifting body on the lakebed in 1968\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The original X-24A in 1968: short, fat and teardrop-shaped. It flew 28 times before being rebuilt into the X-24B. NASA photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">From Teardrop to Flying Flatiron<\/h2>\n<p>The X-24A first glided in April 1969 and made 28 flights. Then the Air Force, NASA and Martin Marietta rebuilt it almost completely. The bulbous teardrop became a long, flat-bottomed shape with a double-delta planform and a pointed nose, which pilots nicknamed the flying flatiron. The new shape had a much better glide ratio and could reach higher speeds.<\/p>\n<p>Manke flew it for the first time on 1 August 1973 and made its first powered flight that November. Over the next two years, the X-24B flew 36 times, reaching 1,164 mph, or Mach 1.76, and around 74,100 feet. Like the X-15 before it, it was carried aloft under the wing of NASA&rsquo;s B-52 and dropped before lighting its XLR11 rocket.<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #1565c0;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><div><em>&ldquo;That precision landing of the X-24B on Aug. 5, 1975, proved that a low lift-to-drag aircraft could be flown to a precise landing.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>NASA<\/strong> &mdash; biography of test pilot John A. Manke<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The Landing That Shaped the Shuttle<\/h2>\n<p>Most lifting-body flights ended on the vast dry lakebeds around Edwards, where a pilot could land almost anywhere. A runway is different: a narrow strip, a fixed touchdown point and no margin. Manke&rsquo;s landing on the main runway on 5 August 1975 showed that it could be done consistently, and Air Force Maj. Mike Love followed with a second runway landing.<\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/x-24b-landing-f-104n-chase-1975.jpg\" alt=\"X-24B landing with an F-104N chase plane, 1975\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The X-24B touches down in 1975 with a NASA F-104N chase plane alongside. NASA photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<p>The consequences were concrete. NASA had considered fitting the Space Shuttle with auxiliary jet engines to help it on approach. After the X-24B landings, engineers decided the Shuttle could glide in unpowered, and the extra engines, with all their weight and complexity, were dropped. Every Shuttle landing from 1981 to 2011 was an unpowered glide.<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><div><em>&ldquo;A space shuttle-like vehicle could safely be landed on a designated runway following a mission in space.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>US Air Force Test Center history office<\/strong> &mdash; on the X-24B landing of 5 August 1975<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n<p>NASA Armstrong&rsquo;s film of the X-24B landing on runway 04 at Edwards:<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2KGjmFolyPs\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The End of the Lifting Bodies<\/h2>\n<p>The X-24B&rsquo;s final flight later in 1975, flown by NASA&rsquo;s Bill Dana, closed the era of piloted lifting-body research at Edwards. Manke finished with 42 lifting-body flights, more than any other pilot. A planned hypersonic successor, the X-24C, was studied in the late 1970s but never built. The X-24B itself now sits in the National Museum of the US Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.<\/p>\n<p>And the idea never went away. Sierra Space&rsquo;s Dream Chaser spaceplane is a lifting body too, part of the same family tree as the shapes that once dropped from a B-52 over the Mojave.<\/p>\n<p>The launch of the X-24B from NASA&rsquo;s B-52 mothership:<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0MzdleunNqc\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n\n\n<p><em>Sources: NASA, National Museum of the US Air Force, US Air Force Test Center, Wikipedia<\/em><\/p>\n\n<!-- mfsh:bottom -->\n\n<button type=\"button\" class=\"mfsh-trigger mfsh-bottom\" data-mfsh-placement=\"bottom\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><svg><use href=\"#mfsh-i-share\"\/><\/svg>Share this story<\/button>\n\n<!-- \/mfsh:bottom -->\n\n\n<style>.mfq{margin:34px 0 8px}.mfq h2{font:26px\/1.3 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117;padding-top:22px;margin:0 0 6px}.mfq .qa details{border-top:1px solid #5C91FF;margin:0;padding:0}.mfq .qa details:last-of-type{border-bottom:1px solid #e2e7ee}.mfq .qa summary{cursor:pointer;list-style:none;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;gap:16px;padding:22px 26px;font:18px\/1.7 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117}.mfq .qa summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mfq .qa summary::after{content:\"+\";font:24px Helvetica,sans-serif;color:#3568e0;flex:0 0 auto}.mfq .qa details[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mfq .qa details:hover summary{color:#3568e0}.mfq .qa .a{font:16px\/1.7 \"Gilroy regular\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#454e5e;padding:0 26px 24px}.mfq .qa .a a{color:#3568e0}@media(max-width:680px){.mfq .qa summary{padding:18px 14px;font-size:17px}.mfq .qa .a{padding:0 14px 20px}}<\/style>\n\n\n<section class=\"mfq\"><h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2><div class=\"qa\"><details open><summary>What was the X-24B?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The X-24B was a rocket-powered lifting body research aircraft flown by NASA and the US Air Force from 1973 to 1975. Rebuilt from the X-24A, it tested how a wingless re-entry vehicle could glide to a precision landing.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Why was the X-24B important for the Space Shuttle?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">On 5 August 1975, John Manke landed the X-24B unpowered on the main runway at Edwards. The landing showed a low lift-to-drag vehicle could land precisely, and NASA dropped plans to give the Space Shuttle auxiliary jet engines for landing.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How fast did the X-24B fly?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The X-24B reached a top speed of 1,164 mph, Mach 1.76, and a maximum altitude of about 74,100 feet, powered by a Reaction Motors XLR11 rocket engine.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How many flights did the X-24B make?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The X-24B made 36 flights between 1973 and 1975: 12 unpowered glide flights and 24 powered flights, all ending in gliding landings.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Who flew the X-24B?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">John Manke made the first X-24B flight and the first runway landing. Other pilots included Air Force Maj. Mike Love, Bill Dana, Einar Enevoldson, Thomas McMurtry and Dick Scobee.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Where is the X-24B today?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The X-24B is displayed at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio.<\/div><\/details><\/div><\/section>\n\n\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What was the X-24B?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The X-24B was a rocket-powered lifting body research aircraft flown by NASA and the US Air Force from 1973 to 1975. 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The landing showed a low lift-to-drag vehicle could land precisely, and NASA dropped plans to give the Space Shuttle auxiliary jet engines for landing.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"How fast did the X-24B fly?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The X-24B reached a top speed of 1,164 mph, Mach 1.76, and a maximum altitude of about 74,100 feet, powered by a Reaction Motors XLR11 rocket engine.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"How many flights did the X-24B make?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The X-24B made 36 flights between 1973 and 1975: 12 unpowered glide flights and 24 powered flights, all ending in gliding landings.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Who flew the X-24B?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"John Manke made the first X-24B flight and the first runway landing. Other pilots included Air Force Maj. 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