X-20 Dyna-Soar
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The Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar ("Dynamic Soarer") was a
United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...
(USAF) program to develop a
spaceplane A spaceplane is a vehicle that can fly and glide like an aircraft in Earth's atmosphere and maneuver like a spacecraft in outer space. To do so, spaceplanes must incorporate features of both aircraft and spacecraft. Orbital spaceplanes te ...
that could be used for a variety of military missions, including
aerial reconnaissance Aerial reconnaissance is reconnaissance for a military or strategic purpose that is conducted using reconnaissance aircraft. The role of reconnaissance can fulfil a variety of requirements including artillery spotting, the collection of ima ...
, bombing, space rescue,
satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...
maintenance, and as a space interceptor to
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enemy satellites. The program ran from October 24, 1957, to December 10, 1963, cost
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660 million ($ in current dollars), and was cancelled just after spacecraft construction had begun. Other spacecraft under development at the time, such as Mercury or
Vostok Vostok refers to east in Russian but may also refer to: Spaceflight * Vostok programme, Soviet human spaceflight project * Vostok (spacecraft), a type of spacecraft built by the Soviet Union * Vostok (rocket family), family of rockets derived from ...
, were
space capsule A space capsule is an often-crewed spacecraft that uses a blunt-body reentry capsule to reenter the Earth's atmosphere without wings. Capsules are distinguished from other satellites primarily by the ability to survive reentry and return a payl ...
s with ballistic re-entry profiles that ended in a landing under a parachute. Dyna-Soar was more like an aircraft. It could travel to distant targets at the speed of an
intercontinental ballistic missile An intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is a ballistic missile with a range greater than , primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery (delivering one or more thermonuclear warheads). Conventional, chemical, and biological weapons c ...
, was designed to glide to Earth like an aircraft under control of a pilot, and could land at an airfield. Dyna-Soar could also reach Earth orbit, like conventional, manned space capsules. These characteristics made Dyna-Soar a far more advanced concept than other
human spaceflight Human spaceflight (also referred to as manned spaceflight or crewed spaceflight) is spaceflight with a crew or passengers aboard a spacecraft, often with the spacecraft being operated directly by the onboard human crew. Spacecraft can also be ...
missions of the period. Research into a spaceplane was realized much later in other reusable spacecraft such as the 1981–2011
Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program na ...
and the more recent
Boeing X-40 The Boeing X-40 Space Maneuver Vehicle was a test platform for the X-37 Future-X Reusable Launch Vehicle. History The unpiloted X-40A was built to 85% scale to test aerodynamics and navigation of the X-37 Future-X Reusable Launch Vehicle proj ...
and X-37B spacecraft.


Background

The concept underlying the X-20 was developed in Germany during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
by
Eugen Sänger Eugen Sänger (22 September 1905 – 10 February 1964) was an Austrian aerospace engineer best known for his contributions to lifting body and ramjet technology. Early career Sänger was born in the former mining town of Preßnitz (Přísečni ...
and Irene Bredt as part of the 1941 proposal. This was a design for a rocket-powered
bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped ...
able to attack
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from bases in
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and then fly on for landing somewhere in the
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held by the
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. The idea would be to use the vehicle's wings to generate lift and pull up into a new ballistic trajectory, exiting the atmosphere again and giving the vehicle time to cool off between the skips. After the war, it was demonstrated that the heating load during the skips was much higher than initially calculated and would have melted the spacecraft. Following the war, many German scientists were taken to the United States by the Office of Strategic Services's
Operation Paperclip Operation Paperclip was a secret United States intelligence program in which more than 1,600 German scientists, engineers, and technicians were taken from the former Nazi Germany to the U.S. for government employment after the end of World War ...
, bringing with them detailed knowledge of the Silbervogel project. Among them,
Walter Dornberger Major-General Dr. Walter Robert Dornberger (6 September 1895 – 26 June 1980) was a German Army artillery officer whose career spanned World War I and World War II. He was a leader of Nazi Germany's V-2 rocket programme and other projects a ...
and Krafft Ehricke moved to
Bell Aircraft The Bell Aircraft Corporation was an American aircraft manufacturer, a builder of several types of fighter aircraft for World War II but most famous for the Bell X-1, the first supersonic aircraft, and for the development and production of many ...
, where, in 1952, they proposed what was essentially a vertical launch version of known as the "Bomber Missile", or "BoMi". These studies all proposed various rocket-powered vehicles that could travel vast distances by gliding after being boosted to high speed and altitude by a rocket stage.Duffy 2004, p. 124. The rocket booster would place the vehicle onto a suborbital, but exoatmospheric, trajectory, resulting in a brief spaceflight followed by re-entry into the
atmosphere An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A s ...
. Instead of a full re-entry and landing, the vehicle would use the
lift Lift or LIFT may refer to: Physical devices * Elevator, or lift, a device used for raising and lowering people or goods ** Paternoster lift, a type of lift using a continuous chain of cars which do not stop ** Patient lift, or Hoyer lift, mobil ...
from its wings to redirect its glide angle upward, trading horizontal velocity for vertical velocity. In this way, the vehicle would be "bounced" back into space again. This skip-glide method would repeat until the speed was low enough that the pilot of the vehicle would need to pick a landing spot and glide the vehicle to a landing. This use of
hypersonic In aerodynamics, a hypersonic speed is one that exceeds 5 times the speed of sound, often stated as starting at speeds of Mach 5 and above. The precise Mach number at which a craft can be said to be flying at hypersonic speed varies, since in ...
atmospheric lift meant that the vehicle could greatly extend its range over a ballistic trajectory using the same rocket booster. There was enough interest in Bomi that by 1956 it had evolved into three separate programs: * RoBo (Rocket Bomber), updated version of Bomi. * Brass Bell, a long-range reconnaissance vehicle. * Hywards (Hypersonic Weapons Research and Development Supporting system), a smaller prototype system to develop the technologies needed for Robo and Brass Bell.


Development

Days after the launch of
Sputnik 1 Sputnik 1 (; see § Etymology) was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space program. It sent a radio signal back to Earth for t ...
on 4 October 1957, on either October 10 or October 24, the USAF Air Research and Development Command (ARDC) consolidated Hywards, Brass Bell, and Robo studies into the Dyna-Soar project, or Weapons System 464L, with a three-step abbreviated development plan. The proposal drew together the existing boost-glide proposals into a single vehicle designed to carry out all the bombing and reconnaissance tasks examined by the earlier studies, and would act as successor to the
X-15 The North American X-15 is a hypersonic rocket-powered aircraft. It was operated by the United States Air Force and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as part of the X-plane series of experimental aircraft. The X-15 set spee ...
research program. The three stages of the Dyna-Soar program were to be a research vehicle (Dyna-Soar I), a reconnaissance vehicle (Dyna-Soar II, previously Brass Bell), and a vehicle that added strategic bombing capability (Dyna-Soar III, previously Robo). The first glide tests for Dyna-Soar I were expected to be carried out in 1963, followed by powered flights, reaching Mach 18, the following year. A robotic glide missile was to be deployed in 1968, with the fully operational weapons system (Dyna-Soar III) expected by 1974. In March 1958, nine U.S. aerospace companies tendered for the Dyna-Soar contract. Of these, the field was narrowed to proposals from Bell and Boeing. Even though Bell had the advantage of six years' worth of design studies, the contract for the spaceplane was awarded to Boeing in June 1959 (by which time their original design had changed markedly and now closely resembled what Bell had submitted). In late 1961, the
Titan III Titan was a family of United States expendable rockets used between 1959 and 2005. The Titan I and Titan II were part of the US Air Force's intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) fleet until 1987. The space launch vehicle versions contribut ...
was chosen as the launch vehicle. The Dyna-Soar was to be launched from
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) is an installation of the United States Space Force's Space Launch Delta 45, located on Cape Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida. Headquartered at the nearby Patrick Space Force Base, the statio ...
, Florida.


Spacecraft description

The overall design of the X-20 Dyna-Soar was outlined in March 1960. It had a low-wing delta shape, with
winglets Wingtip devices are intended to improve the efficiency of fixed-wing aircraft by reducing drag. Although there are several types of wing tip devices which function in different manners, their intended effect is always to reduce an aircraft' ...
for control rather than a more conventional tail. The framework of the craft was to be made from the
René 41 René 41 is a nickel-based high temperature alloy developed by General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The comp ...
super alloy, as were the upper surface panels. The bottom surface was to be made from
molybdenum Molybdenum is a chemical element with the symbol Mo and atomic number 42 which is located in period 5 and group 6. The name is from Neo-Latin ''molybdaenum'', which is based on Ancient Greek ', meaning lead, since its ores were confused with lea ...
sheets placed over insulated René 41, while the nose-cone was to be made from
graphite Graphite () is a crystalline form of the element carbon. It consists of stacked layers of graphene. Graphite occurs naturally and is the most stable form of carbon under standard conditions. Synthetic and natural graphite are consumed on large ...
with
zirconia Zirconium dioxide (), sometimes known as zirconia (not to be confused with zircon), is a white crystalline oxide of zirconium. Its most naturally occurring form, with a monoclinic crystalline structure, is the mineral baddeleyite. A dopant sta ...
rods. Due to changing requirements, several versions of the Dyna-Soar were considered, all sharing the same basic shape and layout. A single pilot sat at the front, with an equipment bay situated behind. This bay contained data-collection equipment, weapons, reconnaissance equipment, or a four-person mid-deck in the case of the X-20X ''shuttle space vehicle''. A Martin Marietta
Transtage Transtage, given the United States Air Force designation SSB-10A, was an American upper stage used on Titan III rockets, developed by Martin Marietta and Aerojet. History Transtage was developed in anticipation of a requirement to launch milita ...
upper stage A multistage rocket or step rocket is a launch vehicle that uses two or more rocket ''stages'', each of which contains its own engines and propellant. A ''tandem'' or ''serial'' stage is mounted on top of another stage; a ''parallel'' stage is ...
attached to the aft end of the craft would allow orbital maneuvers and a launch abort capability before being jettisoned before descent into the atmosphere. While falling through the atmosphere an opaque heat shield made from a
refractory metal Refractory metals are a class of metals that are extraordinarily resistant to heat and wear. The expression is mostly used in the context of materials science, metallurgy and engineering. The definition of which elements belong to this group diff ...
would protect the window at the front of the craft. This heat shield would then be jettisoned after
aerobraking Aerobraking is a spaceflight maneuver that reduces the high point of an elliptical orbit ( apoapsis) by flying the vehicle through the atmosphere at the low point of the orbit ( periapsis). The resulting drag slows the spacecraft. Aerobraking ...
so the pilot could see, and safely land. A drawing in the ''Space/Aeronautics'' magazine from before the project's cancellation depicts the craft skimming the surface of the atmosphere to change its orbital
inclination Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a Plane of reference, reference plane and the orbital plane or Axis of rotation, axis of direction of the orbiting object ...
. It would then fire its rocket to resume orbit. This would be a unique ability for a spacecraft, as the laws of
celestial mechanics Celestial mechanics is the branch of astronomy that deals with the motions of objects in outer space. Historically, celestial mechanics applies principles of physics (classical mechanics) to astronomical objects, such as stars and planets, to ...
mean it requires an enormous expenditure of energy to change an orbital inclination once established. The Dyna-Soar was projected to be able to use this capability to rendezvous with satellites even if the target conducted evasive maneuvers. Acceleration forces on the pilot would be severe in such a maneuver. Unlike the later Space Shuttle, Dyna-Soar did not have wheels on its tricycle undercarriage, as rubber tires would have caught fire during re-entry. Instead Goodyear developed retractable wire-brush skids made of the same René 41 alloy as the airframe.


Operational history

In April 1960, seven astronauts were secretly chosen for the Dyna-Soar program: *
Neil Armstrong Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) was an American astronaut and aeronautical engineer who became the first person to walk on the Moon in 1969. He was also a naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor. ...
(1930–2012; NASA) 1960–1962 * William H. "Bill" Dana (1930–2014; NASA) 1960–1962 *
Henry C. Gordon Henry Charles Gordon (December 23, 1925 – September 24, 1996), (Col, USAF), was an American aeronautical engineer, U.S. Air Force officer, test pilot, and astronaut in the X-20 Dyna-Soar program. Early life and education Gordon was born in V ...
(1925–1996; Air Force) 1960–1963 * Pete Knight (1929–2004; Air Force) 1960–1963 * Russell L. Rogers (1928–1967; Air Force) 1960–1963 * Milt Thompson (1926–1993; NASA) 1960–1963 *
James W. Wood James Wayne Wood (August 9, 1924 – January 1, 1990), (Colonel (United States), Col, United States Air Force, USAF), was an American aeronautical engineer, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Air Force officer, test pilot, and astronaut in the Boeing X-20 Dyna ...
(1924–1990; Air Force) 1960–1963 Neil Armstrong and Bill Dana left the program in mid-1962. On September 19, 1962, Albert Crews was added to the Dyna-Soar program and the names of the six remaining Dyna-Soar astronauts were announced to the public. By the end of 1962, Dyna-Soar had been designated X-20, the booster (to be used in the Dyna Soar I drop-tests) successfully fired, and the USAF had held an unveiling ceremony for the X-20 in
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. The Minneapolis-Honeywell Regulator Company (later the
Honeywell Corporation Honeywell International Inc. is an American publicly traded, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building technologies, performance mat ...
) completed flight tests on an inertia guidance sub-system for the X-20 project at
Eglin Air Force Base Eglin Air Force Base is a United States Air Force (USAF) base in the western Florida Panhandle, located about southwest of Valparaiso in Okaloosa County. The host unit at Eglin is the 96th Test Wing (formerly the 96th Air Base Wing). The ...
, Florida, utilizing an NF-101B Voodoo by August 1963. Boeing B-52C-40-BO Stratofortress ''53-0399'' was assigned to the program for air-dropping the X-20, similar to the
X-15 The North American X-15 is a hypersonic rocket-powered aircraft. It was operated by the United States Air Force and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as part of the X-plane series of experimental aircraft. The X-15 set spee ...
launch profile. When the X-20 was cancelled, it was used for other air-drop tests including that of the
B-1A The Rockwell B-1 Lancer is a supersonic variable-sweep wing, heavy bomber used by the United States Air Force. It is commonly called the "Bone" (from "B-One"). It is one of three strategic bombers serving in the U.S. Air Force fleet along wit ...
escape capsule.


Problems

Besides the funding issues that often accompany research efforts, the Dyna-Soar program suffered from two major problems: uncertainty over the booster to be used to send the craft into orbit, and a lack of a clear goal for the project. Many different boosters were proposed to launch Dyna-Soar into orbit. The original USAF proposal suggested
LOX Liquid oxygen—abbreviated LOx, LOX or Lox in the aerospace, submarine and gas industries—is the liquid form of molecular oxygen. It was used as the oxidizer in the first liquid-fueled rocket invented in 1926 by Robert H. Goddard, an appli ...
/JP-4, fluorine-ammonia, fluorine-hydrazine, or RMI (X-15) engines, but Boeing, the principal contractor, favored an
Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geographic ...
-
Centaur A centaur ( ; grc, κένταυρος, kéntauros; ), or occasionally hippocentaur, is a creature from Greek mythology with the upper body of a human and the lower body and legs of a horse. Centaurs are thought of in many Greek myths as being ...
combination. Eventually, in November 1959, the Air Force stipulated a Titan, as suggested by failed competitor Martin, but the Titan I was not powerful enough to launch the five-ton X-20 into orbit. The Titan II and Titan III boosters could launch Dyna-Soar into Earth orbit, as could the Saturn C-1 (later renamed the
Saturn I The Saturn I was a rocket designed as the United States' first medium lift launch vehicle for up to low Earth orbit payloads.Terminology has changed since the 1960s; back then, 20,000 pounds was considered "heavy lift". The rocket's first sta ...
), and all were proposed with various upper-stage and booster combinations. In December 1961, the Titan IIIC was chosen,) but the vacillations over the launch system delayed the project and complicated planning. The original intention for Dyna-Soar, outlined in the Weapons System 464L proposal, called for a project combining aeronautical research with weapons system development. Many questioned whether the USAF should have a crewed space program, when that was the primary domain of NASA. It was frequently emphasized by the Air Force that, unlike the NASA programs, Dyna-Soar allowed for controlled re-entry, and this was where the main effort in the X-20 program was placed. On January 19, 1963, the Secretary of Defense,
Robert McNamara Robert Strange McNamara (; June 9, 1916 – July 6, 2009) was an American business executive and the eighth United States Secretary of Defense, serving from 1961 to 1968 under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. He remains the Lis ...
, directed the U.S. Air Force to undertake a study to determine whether Gemini or Dyna-Soar was the more feasible approach to a space-based weapon system. In the middle of March 1963, after receiving the study, Secretary McNamara "stated that the Air Force had been placing too much emphasis on controlled re-entry when it did not have any real objectives for orbital flight". This was seen as a reversal of the Secretary's earlier position on the Dyna-Soar program. Dyna-Soar was also an expensive program that would not launch a crewed mission until the mid-1960s at the earliest. This high cost and questionable utility made it difficult for the U.S. Air Force to justify the program. Eventually, the X-20 Dyna-Soar program was canceled on December 10, 1963. On the day that X-20 was canceled, the U.S. Air Force announced another program, the
Manned Orbiting Laboratory The Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) was part of the United States Air Force (USAF) human spaceflight program in the 1960s. The project was developed from early USAF concepts of crewed space stations as reconnaissance satellites, and was a s ...
, a spin-off of Gemini. This program was also eventually canceled. Another black program,
ISINGLASS Isinglass () is a substance obtained from the dried swim bladders of fish. It is a form of collagen used mainly for the clarification or fining of some beer and wine. It can also be cooked into a paste for specialised gluing purposes. The ...
, which was to be air-launched from a B-52 bomber, was evaluated and some engine work done, but was eventually cancelled as well.


Legacy

Despite cancellation of the X-20, the affiliated research on spaceplanes influenced the much larger
Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program na ...
. The final design also used
delta wing A delta wing is a wing shaped in the form of a triangle. It is named for its similarity in shape to the Greek uppercase letter delta (Δ). Although long studied, it did not find significant applications until the Jet Age, when it proved suitabl ...
s for controlled landings. The later, and much smaller Soviet
BOR-4 The BOR-4 (''БОР-4'' russian: Беспилотный Орбитальный Ракетоплан 4, , "Unpiloted Orbital Rocketplane 4") flight vehicle is a scaled (1:2) prototype of the Soviet Spiral VTHL (vertical takeoff, horizontal landin ...
was closer in design philosophy to the Dyna-Soar, while NASA's Martin X-23 PRIME and
Martin Marietta X-24A The Martin Marietta X-24 was an American experimental aircraft developed from a joint United States Air Force-NASA program named PILOT (1963–1975). It was designed and built to test lifting body concepts, experimenting with the concept of u ...
/
HL-10 The Northrop HL-10 was one of five US heavyweight lifting body designs flown at NASA's Flight Research Center (FRC—later Dryden Flight Research Center) in Edwards, California, from July 1966 in aviation, 1966 to November 1975 in aviation, 1975 ...
research aircraft also explored aspects of sub-orbital and space flight. The
ESA , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (120 ...
's proposed
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crewed space craft was superficially similar to but not derived from the X-20.


Specifications (as designed)


Media

* The 1959 '' Twilight Zone'' season 1 episode titled "
And When the Sky Was Opened "And When the Sky Was Opened" is episode eleven of the American television anthology series ''The Twilight Zone''. It originally aired on December 11, 1959. It is an adaptation of the 1953 Richard Matheson short story "Disappearing Act." Openin ...
" made reference to a spacecraft called the X20 which had a similar profile but could carry a crew of three. * In 1962, the fifth book in
Donald A. Wollheim Donald Allen Wollheim (October 1, 1914 – November 2, 1990) was an American science fiction editor, publisher, writer, and fan. As an author, he published under his own name as well as under pseudonyms, including David Grinnell, Martin Pearso ...
's ''Mike Mars'' series, ''Mike Mars flies the Dyna-Soar'', had the title character fly an emergency rescue mission in the Dyna-Soar. * John Berryman's 1963 short story "The Trouble with Telstar" featured a Dyna-Soar being used to intercept communications satellites for repair. * The 1969 Hollywood film drama ''
Marooned Marooned may refer to: * Marooning Marooning is the intentional act of abandoning someone in an uninhabited area, such as a desert island, or more generally (usually in passive voice) to be marooned is to be in a place from which one cannot escape ...
'' featured a rescue craft modeled somewhat after the Dyna-Soar (called the X-RV for eXperimental Rescue Vehicle) being hurriedly deployed to rescue astronauts aboard a crippled Apollo command capsule. This was lampooned in ''
Mad Magazine Mad, mad, or MAD may refer to: Geography * Mad (village), a village in the Dunajská Streda District of Slovakia * Mád, a village in Hungary * Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport, by IATA airport code * Mad River (disambiguation), several ...
'' as the XRT, the Experimental Rescue Thing.


See also


References


Notes


Bibliography

* Caidin, Martin. ''Wings into Space: The History and Future of Winged Space Flight.'' New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston Inc., 1964. * Dornberger, Walter R. "The Rocket-Propelled Commercial Airliner". ''Dyna-Soar: Hypersonic Strategic Weapons System, Research Report No 135.''. Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota, Institute of Technology, 1956. * Duffy, James P. ''Target: America, Hitler's Plan to Attack the United States.'' Santa Barbara, California: Praeger, 2004. . * ''Dyna-Soar: Hypersonic Strategic Weapons System: Structure Description Report''. Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland: Air Force Systems Command, 1961, pp. 145–189. * Geiger, Clarence J. ''History of the X-20A Dyna-Soar. Vol. 1: AFSC Historical Publications Series 63-50-I, Document ID ASD-TR-63-50-I.'' Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio: Aeronautical Systems Division Information Office, 1963. * * Houchin, Roy. ''U.S. Hypersonic Research and Development: The Rise and Fall of Dyna-Soar, 1944–1963.'' London: Routledge, 2006. . * * *


External links


Dyna Soar
at
Encyclopedia Astronautica The ''Encyclopedia Astronautica'' is a reference web site on space travel. A comprehensive catalog of vehicles, technology, astronauts, and flights, it includes information from most countries that have had an active rocket research program, f ...

Official United States Air Force film from the 1960 describing the spacecraft.


at
Encyclopedia Astronautica The ''Encyclopedia Astronautica'' is a reference web site on space travel. A comprehensive catalog of vehicles, technology, astronauts, and flights, it includes information from most countries that have had an active rocket research program, f ...

Tsien Space Plane 1978Transonic aerodynamic characteristics of the Dyna-Soar glider and Titan 3 launch vehicle configuration with various fin arrangements (PDF format) NASA report – April 1963''American X-Vehicles: An Inventory X-1 to X-50'', SP-2000-4531 – June 2003; NASA online PDF MonographLIFE 22 Feb 1963 article about X-20 and the pilots training to fly it.
{{Authority control
X-20 Dyna-Soar The Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar ("Dynamic Soarer") was a United States Air Force (USAF) program to develop a spaceplane that could be used for a variety of military missions, including aerial reconnaissance, bombing, space rescue, satellite maintena ...
Cancelled American spacecraft Cancelled military aircraft projects of the United States Crewed spacecraft Partially reusable space launch vehicles Spaceplanes Space weapons Tailless delta-wing aircraft