From ‘Flying Bathtub’ to Space Shuttle

What does a Pontiac convertible have to do with a space shuttle? In 1963 a souped-up Catalina ragtop was used to tow the M2-F1—the world’s first manned lifting body and arguably the shuttle’s forerunner—during initial tests of the unpowered craft in California’s high desert. During the ’60s most NASA engineers were skeptical of the lifting …

The post From ‘Flying Bathtub’ to Space Shuttle appeared first on HistoryNet.