Has anyone done a HL-10 Lifting body?

[JMChladek]

I would avoid Bananahobby stuff like the plague. It looks good, but they tend not to fly all that well and usually break too easily. Besides, there are plenty of other RC SR-71 replicas out there.

I spent 18 months living in Okinawa as a kid and periodically would look up from my neighborhood near Okinawa City to see a Blackbird coming back to Kadena from a recon mission. Those Habus were cool to watch in flight, even if they were passing overhead about 1500 feet and quiet due to the engines being throttled back for approach and landing. I never had a chance to check one out doing a flying display at an airshow, just roped off ground displays. Of course it looks big in pictures, but is kind of a small oddball when compared with bombers and KC-135s (bigger then fighter planes though).

 

[MFP 2020]

What a coincidence! I found this thread this morning; tonight while I was going through old photos looking for something else entirely, look what I found:

Me on a Boy Scouts field trip to Edwards AFB circa 1976/77. Being a huge SMDM fan, I was pretty excited to see the HL-10 at Dryden. I don't recall looking into the cockpit; I think I was already closer than I was supposed to be. In any case, that was the highlight of my weekend. (Check out my wingspan. I guess I had huge lats even back then.)

I spent 18 months living in Okinawa as a kid and periodically would look up from my neighborhood near Okinawa City to see a Blackbird coming back to Kadena from a recon mission.

In 1989 I rotated to Okinawa for six months. As we were on approach at Kadena, a Blackbird landed and high-tailed it to the hangar, which was buttoned up without delay. Never seen anything like it.

 

[JMChladek]

Wow, nice shot. The HL-10 is a good looking machine compared to the other lifting bodies. The X-24B with its long nose might be the sleekest of the lot, but I love the graceful lines of the HL-10 in comparison to the M2-F2/3 and the X-24A.

 

[feek61]

Well I have given up waiting for someone to do this, lol. I'll probably attempt a 1/24 scale when I get the bench cleared. I'll start off with the M2-F2 and see how that works out. Should end up being about 22" long. Boy my wife is going to be pissed!!! lol

 

[PHArchivist]

With Six Million Dollar Man now out on region 1 DVD, I am pondering picking it up, but it is NOT cheap by a long shot. Still, with the cockpit footage and up close imagery they did of the HL-10, it would make a nice reference.

Got it for Christmas. Watched the first piot episode just yesterday. Amazing how "calm" and nonchalant the crash is, as compared to the re-edited version for the opening credit sequence.

 

[feek61]

I have an old bootleg that I've watched for years. How is the quality?

 

[PHArchivist]

I have an old bootleg that I've watched for years. How is the quality?

Pretty good. Average Standard Def DVD. Particularly good considering the age of the source material.

 

[JMChladek]

The quality of the Bionic Woman 1st season set I got in October was also pretty good (5 episodes of 6MDM are in the set). I've seen some not so good prints of some of the Universal shows from the 1970s put out on DVD and these seem to be done quite well.

 

[slave1pilot]

Me too! It's just such a classic and has been around of course forever. This NASA B-52 is one of the earliest ones built; the 10th one off of the assembly line. It's a "B" model and number 8 or in the vernacular "Balls 8." It by far is the oldest, longest flying B-52 (most of the active ones now are "H" models) but it has the fewest hours of any B-52 still flying (2443 hrs). Well, actually it's NOT flying anymore. It was retired a few years ago in December of 2004 and was replaced with a "H" model. NASA also had another B-52B during the X-15 program which was "Balls 3." It was retired in 1969 after the X-15 program and "Balls 8" remained the carrier aircraft for NASA until it's retirement. The above lifting body photo was taken from a plexiglass bubble that they added to the side of the plane for photography. There was also one forward of the wing. Here is "Balls 8" in it's earlier and later paint configurations:

I stopped by The North Gate of Edwards yesterday (it's about 10 min from my work ) and took a few pics of THE B-52 with my cell
Sorry for the quality

I took a few more.
I have close-ups of all the craft painted on the side after each mission if you guys want those.

 

[PHArchivist]

Holy **** so is that the very plane seen in the opening credits of 6MDM?

 

[slave1pilot]

Yes,
this pic is the plane that crashed and the Pilot who crashed it

Lots of info can be quickly found here;
NASA, Air Force Lifting Bodies

and a gallery of the plane used in 6MDM is here;
NASA M2F2 Lifting Body Photos

 

[PHArchivist]

Very cool, Nate. One of these weekends I'm going to take my boy to see the Mojave boneyard/museum. May have to give you a call...

 

[PHArchivist]

I took some scree grabs of the craft from the 6MDM pilot episode. But will have to post them later.

 

[slave1pilot]

Very cool, Nate. One of these weekends I'm going to take my boy to see the Mojave boneyard/museum. May have to give you a call...

Please do
We'll take you to the Blackbird Air Park in Palmdale
Goleta Air and Space Museum: Palmdale Airparks
Not really big, but they have a few cool planes
If you gimme enough notice, we see about a tour of the base too.

 

[feek61]

Here are caps from the pilot movie of "The Six Million Dollar Man":

 

[JMChladek]

Those are some great screen grabs. I can easily make out the slat type extensions that were added to the HL-10s side tails in that last picture. Other pictures don't show them as clearly, mainly because the white paint over them sort of drowns out the details. Any good screen grabs of the cockpit?

 

[feek61]

Does anybody know any information about the HL-10 nose section being damaged? A while back I had heard that it was dropped and the entire front end was damaged but I can't seem to remember where I heard that or find any information on it. Comparing photos of it back in the day and current photos where it is on display the nose and cockpit area definitely are not the same. Any info would be great.

 

[feek61]

I also wanted to post the link for the NASA film "Flight Without Wings" It is a typical film for the era but still very interesting. It basically gives a brief overview of the lifting body concept and then follows John Manke on the day of the first supersonic flight of the HL-10. It also shows the M2-F2 crash. I saw this back in the 1970's and really enjoyed it then. Here is the link:

NASA Flight Without Wings, Download movies free video downloads movies free videos tv shows cartoons

 

[feek61]

Another great HL-10 photo:

 

[feek61]

Here are a few more. These are from the second season episode of the "Six Million Dollar Man" entitled "The Deadly Replay".