NORTHROP M2-F3 REACTION CONTROL THRUSTER.

NORTHROP M2-F3 REACTION CONTROL THRUSTER.
ORIGINAL THRUSTER ROCKET FOR JOINT NASA/NORTHROP LIFTING BODY PROJECT.
Various alloys with plastic nozzle, 8 3/4 inches tall, 1967-1973, with NASA Flight Research Center tag and receipt.

The M2-F3 (M for Manned, F for Flight) lifting body aircraft was a joint project of Northrup along with the engineers at NASA's Flight Research Center, Ames Research Center and the Air Force. The lifting body is essentially a wingless aircraft that used the lift provided by the fuselage shape and would allow the pilot to land in a horizontal mode — a concept that was to aid the spacecraft of the future. The M2-F3 was a rebuild of the earlier M2-F2 which had crashed in May 1967. Among the additions on the updated vehicle was a reaction control system which utilized thrusters, such as the present example, to provide attitude control and sometimes translation. It was a system similar to that of orbiting spacecraft and was likely borrowed from that realm. The vehicle made 27 flights before it was donated to the Smithsonian Institution in December 1973.