Northrop HL-10 Piloted Lifting-Body Research Family
The Northrop HL-10 was a piloted lifting-body research aircraft built for NASA to evaluate controlled flight and unpowered landing of a wingless reentry shape. It made 37 flights between December 22, 1966 and July 17, 1970; the first 11 were unpowered glides before rocket-powered testing. In February 1970 it reached Mach 1.86 and the highest altitude of the heavyweight lifting-body program. Its handling and landing research helped establish the feasibility of reusable spacecraft making unpowered runway landings.
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Identity
- Aliases
- HL-10Northrop HL-10HL10Horizontal Landing 10
- Family Name
- Northrop HL-10 Lifting Body
- Full Name
- Northrop HL-10 Piloted Lifting-Body Research Family
- Roles
- researchexperimentaltechnology_demonstrator
- Status
- retired
- Type
- aircraft
Details
- Aircraft Specs
- Configuration
- other
- Crew Capacity
- 1
- Operating Modes
- land
- Description
- The Northrop HL-10 was a piloted lifting-body research aircraft built for NASA to evaluate controlled flight and unpowered landing of a wingless reentry shape. It made 37 flights between December 22, 1966 and July 17, 1970; the first 11 were unpowered glides before rocket-powered testing. In February 1970 it reached Mach 1.86 and the highest altitude of the heavyweight lifting-body program. Its handling and landing research helped establish the feasibility of reusable spacecraft making unpowered runway landings.
- Dimensions
- Length
- …
- Width
- …
- First Flight Year
- 1,966
- Last Flight Year
- 1,970
- Manufacturer
- Propulsion Configurations
- Entries
- Count
- 1
- Propulsion System
- Role
- main
- Variant Notes
- NASA identifies the XLR-11 model; no exact subvariant is inferred.
- Name
- HL-10 XLR-11 rocket installation
Links
Assets & Meta
- Creation Time
- August 7, 2026 at 20:31:13 UTC
- Updated Time
- October 29, 2026 at 15:20:06 UTC
- Image
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