The wingless, lifting body aircraft design was initially concieved as a means of landing an aircraft horizontally after atmospheric reentry. It had two rudders on the fins, two elevons (called 'elephant ears') mounted on the outsides of the fins, and two body flaps on the upper rear fuselage. Lacking wings, the M 2- F 1 used an unusual configuration for its control surfaces. This was done to avoid wake turbulence from the towplane. In this rear view, the M 2- F 1 is flying above and to one side of the C-47. The M 2- F 1 Lifting Body is seen here being towed behind a C-47 at the Flight Research Center (later redesignated the Dryden Flight Research Center), Edwards, California. He took the car to Bill Straup's renowned hot-rod shop Together with Boyden 'Bud' Bearce in the Procurement and Supply Branch of the FRC, Whitey acquired a Pontiac Catalina convertible with the largest engine available. Walter 'Whitey' Whiteside, who was a retired Air Force maintenance officer working in the FRC's Flight Operations Division, was a dirt-bike rider and hot-rodder. To do that, it had to handle the 400-pound pull of the M 2- F 1. This vehicle needed to be able to tow the M 2- F 1 on the Rogers Dry Lakebed adjacent to NASA's Flight Research Center (FRC) at a minimum speed of 100 miles per hour. The first flight tests of the M 2- F 1 were over Rogers Dry Lake at the end of a tow rope attached to a hopped-up Pontiac convertible driven at speeds up to about 120 mph. It featured a plywood shell placed over a tubular steel frame crafted at Dryden. It would look like a 'flying bathtub,' and was designated the M 2- F 1, the ' M' referring to 'manned' and ' F' referring to 'flight' version. In 1962, Dryden management approved a program to build a lightweight, unpowered lifting body as a prototype to flight test the wingless concept.
The absence of wings would make the extreme heat of re-entry less damaging to the vehicle. The wingless, lifting body aircraft design was initially conceived as a means of landing an aircraft horizontally after atmospheric reentry. The Paresev (Paraglider Research Vehicle) used a Rogallo wing that could be (but never was) used to replace a conventional parachute for landing a capsule-type spacecraft, allowing it to make a controlled landing on the ground.
The M 2- F 1 was a lifting body, a shape able to re-enter from orbit and land. In this photo of the M 2- F 1 lifting body and the Paresev 1B on the ramp, the viewer sees two vehicles representing different approaches to building a research craft to simulate a spacecraft able to land on the ground instead of splashing down in the ocean as the Mercury capsules did. M 2- F 1 lifting body and Paresev 1B on ramp
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