NASA 'Lifting Body' pioneer Robert Dale Reed dies at 75

SAN DIEGO (AP) - Robert Dale Reed, an aeronautics researcher who pioneered the "Lifting Body" and remotely piloted aircraft programs with NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in the 1960s and 1970s, has died. He was 75.

Reed died Friday due to complications of cancer, NASA said in a statement Monday.

Reed began his career with NASA in 1953. The "Lifting Body" program - his most recognized achievement - grew out of Reed's belief that a wingless craft could serve as an orbiting vehicle, re-enter Earth's atmosphere and land safely. Reed's research eventually provided guidance to the design of the Space Shuttle.

Reed won numerous awards and held several patents, including one for a solar guidance system capable of steering an airplane.

Following his retirement from NASA in 1985, Reed worked for Lockheed Advanced Development Projects. He returned to NASA Dryden at Edwards Air Force Base later as a contract aerospace engineer.

A longtime resident of Lancaster, Calif., Reed is survived by his wife Donna and four children.

Trying to chase down this rumor. Here's more source material:

http://www.noticetoairmen.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-44.html

Joey02-01-2003, 04:59 AM
Those of us who grew up in the 70's probably watched the television series "The Six-Million Dollar Man". If you remember the opening sequence, you certainly remember the footage of the horrendous crash of an odd looking aircraft (The aircraft which Lee Major's character, Steve Austin, was allegedly piloting). What many people DON'T know is that this aircraft was real, as was the footage of the crash.

The M2-F2 was an early NASA experiment in the concept of lifting bodies. The "Flying Bathtub" as it was nicknamed was designed by Northrop, and first flown on July 02, 1966.

On it's first flight it was mated to and airdropped from a B-52 mothership, from an altitude of 45,000 feet. It attained a speed of just under 452 mph, with a flight duration of 217 seconds.

It went on to perform a total of 16 flights, with 4 different test pilots.
It's 16th and final flight occurred on May 10, 1967. The pilot on that fateful day was Bruce Peterson.

After being airdropped by the mothership from 45,000 feet, the M2-F2 managed a speed of 402 mph, and all seemed well. But, on Peterson's final approach, the aircraft began a series of violent rolling oscillations. Once he recovered control, he was no longer lined up with the runway, and became concerned that a rescue helicopter, hovering beside the runway, was too close. He attempted to realign himself with the runway, and apparently deployed the landing gear too late. The gear was only partially deployed when he contacted the runway. The vehicle began a violent series of rolls and tumbled end over end , finally coming to rest upside down. This was the horrific accident that was forever etched in our minds by "The Six-Million Dollar Man".

The M2-F2 was destroyed. Bruce Peterson was seriously injured, losing the sight in one eye, which ended his career as a test pilot.

Peterson did, however, stay on at NASA, and after his recovery, became an engineer on the digital fly-by-wire program in the late 60's and early 70's. After leaving NASA, he became safety officer for the Northrop B-2 Spirit Program.

Justin02-02-2003, 01:56 PM
Joey,

Do you have any additional details on what the objective of the program was? Was it an aircraft built soley for research purposes?

Joey02-02-2003, 07:35 PM
Hi Justin,

My understanding is that the program was specifically targeted at building and testing lifting bodies and focused on the production of a reusable "space plane". The M2-F1 was originally a plywood mock-up that was towed behind (I believe) a '47 ford, and later by a C-47, to prove that the shape of the body could actually produce enough lift to keep it airborne.

One thing that the test pilots noticed in the M2-F2 was that while it did provide lift, the descents (when airdropped) were quite steep, and the approaches to landing were quite fast. It seems apparent that, while these early aircraft were indeed lifting bodies, there was much work to do.

It should be noted that our present-day Space Shuttles are, by and large, lifting bodies, and probably owe at least some credit to the M2-F2 (and later the M2-F3).

Somewhat similar is the SR-71, which is itself a lifting body. While it certainly has wings, a large portion of it's lift is generated by the shape of the entire vehicle, not just the wings.

Joey

I found a cool site that has pictures of the M2-F2 and Bruce Peterson, and even has the original video:

http://groups.msn.com/spacecowboysaloon/m2f2.msnw

Ever see the opening credits of the TV show The Six Million Dollar Man? That's the M2-F2 that Col. Steve Austin "crashed." In reality, the crash happened on May 10, 1967, at Edwards AFB. Pilot Bruce Peterson was making the plane's 16th unpowered flight when he encountered a Pilot-Induced Oscillation (PIO) which cased the M2-F2 to roll wildly from side-to-side. The PIO had been encountered by Milt Thompson during the first flight, and intentionally researched on two other flights. The M2-F2 was turning out to be the least-stable of all the Lifting Bodies. So this was not an entirely unexpected situation for Bruce Peterson. He recovered, but was distracted by a rescue helicopter that strayed too close, and delayed just a split second or so before lowering the landing gear. The M2-F2 hit the ground with the gear only partially down, and flipped six times, coming to rest upside-down. Two men pulled Bruce from the wreckage (that's his helmet on the ground just in front of the nose), and he was severely injured. He was flown to UCLA Medical Center. Peterson had a long road to recovery but nonetheless lived to fly again, despite losing vision in his right eye due to a staph infection. As for the M2-F2, it was taken back to the Northrop plant in Hawthorne, CA, rebuilt (for $700,000) and redesignated the M2-F3. Meanwhile, while the M2-F3 was laid up at the plant, the HL-10 and X-24A programs continued. In its original configuration, the M2-F2 made a total of 16 flights. NASA Photo.

Engineer Dale Reed holds a model of the M2-F1 Lifting Body aircraft with the full scale version directly behind him. In support of the M2 lifting body program in the early 1960s, Dale Reed had built a number of small lifting body shapes and drop tested them from a radio controlled mothership.

The M2-F1 lifting body aircraft rests on the sun-baked floor of a dry lake bed located out in the Mojave Desert at the Dryden Flight Research Center, California. Pilot Chuck Yeager, seated in the cockpit of the M2- F1, talks with fellow pilots from left to right Milt Thompson, Don Malick and Bruce Peterson. All three flew the lifting body in several flights. The vehicle later suffered a mishap when Peterson was landing it--the oil in the landing gear hydraulics was not suitable for cold temperatures and caused the gear to break and the vehicle to suffer minor damage.

NASA research pilot Bill Dana takes a moment to watch NASA's NB-52B cruise overhead after a research flight in the HL-10. On the left, John Reeves can be seen at the cockpit of the lifting body. The HL-10 was one of five lifting body designs flown at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California, from July 1966 to November 1975 to study and validate the concept of safely maneuvering and landing a low lift-over-drag vehicle designed for reentry from space.

The wingless, lifting body aircraft sitting on Rogers Dry Lake at what is now NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California, from left to right are the X-24A, M2-F3 and the HL-10. The lifting body aircraft studied the feasibility of maneuvering and landing an aerodynamic craft designed for reentry from space. These lifting bodies were air launched by a B-52 mother ship, then flew powered by their own rocket engines before making an unpowered approach and landing. They helped validate the concept that a space shuttle could make accurate landings without power.

NASA research pioneer dies
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Dale Reed was one of the modest geniuses who helped keep the USA at the leading edge of aeronautics during the first century of flight. I love the story about Reed pitching his ideas about lifting bodies to Flight Test Center Director Paul Bikle, with the goal of attaining project status and a budget. Bikle told him that money was very tight but he so believed in Reed's talent and was so convinced by the self funded work he had done with models that he scraped money from the already budgeted coffee fund to get the lifting body project off the ground.

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