X-24
The X-24 had no wings. Yet there it is, flying at dizzying heights above California. It was one of the last “lifting bodies” designed by NASA to demonstrate how pilots could cruise such wingless vehicles back to ground from space. The original X-24 was a bulbous teardrop shape, but the X-24B (photographed above) switched to a compressed flatiron shape. The design was aerodynamically sound, and the aircraft would glide unpowered to ground at speeds of over 1,000 miles per hour. If you just said “gnarly” out loud, you’d be right.
