Northrop HL-10 1966 Experimental Lifting Body 1/48 Model Kit

Northrop HL-10 1966 Experimental Lifting Body 1/48 Model Kit:

The Northrop HL-10 was one of five experimental "lifting bodies" developed by NASA during the 1960s and early 1970s to determine the characteristics necessary for controlled, unpowered descent from orbit.

This is the classic HL-10 lifting body as seen in The Six Million Dollar Man TV Series starring Lee Majors and Col. Steve Austin.

Developed at NASA's Flight Research Center -- later
Dryden Flight Research Center -- the HL-10 made its first flight on December 22, 1966 from Edwards Air Force Base in California. It made a total of 37 flights, 24 of them powered, before being retired in 1970. Lessons learned from the HL-10 and its sister lifting bodies were subsequently incorporated into the design for the American Space Shuttle.

Project engineer R. Dale Reed reportedly wanted to take the HL-10 into orbit aboard a modified Saturn V, a proposal Dr. Werner von Braun enthusiastically endorsed. However, NASA's post-Apollo budget-cutting made such a mission impossible.

About the Model