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NASA unearths fascinating film of early experimental planes
NASA's Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center has unearthed original footage of experimental aircraft from as far back as the 1940s. It shows really cool views of airplanes, like the Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket and the X-15 space plane. (sploid.gizmodo.com) More...
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Just too bad there isn't audio.
It was still really fun to watch.
See the movie "The Right Stuff" for some of the audio.
The plane in the right corner is an F-16XL or XLS I believe. My dad work for the company and was part of the mechanical design team I believe.
Yes. That is an F-16XL, notice the difference between the right and left wings, that aircraft was used in the early 90s for an extensive series of Laminar air flow studies. The F-16XL was of the variants of the F-16 built during the "light fighter" contract competition, which the F-16A finally won. Two F-16XL airframes were in line to be scrapped when NASA acquired them for Dryden Research.
Awesome. Amazing what they did with as little technology was available.
