ON THIS DAY (16 AUGUST 1963): Wingless M2-F1 completes 1st glide flight.

The wingless aircraft kind of looked like a flying bathtub which was sitting on a tricycle. NASA made it to test a new concept called "The Lifting Body", which was an unpowered glider that provided an alternative way to return piloted spacecraft to Earth.

Instead of pummeling out of the sky in a ballistic reentry, the lifting body landed sort of like an aeroplane. For its first test flight, "The M2-F1" was towed 12,000 feet into the sky by a "C-47 SkyTrain" and then discharged. Test pilot "Milt Thompson" was in the cockpit, and he brought the glider in for a smooth landing in California after a two minutes descent.