Stock Photo - This photo shows the left side cockpit instrumentation panel of the M2_F2 Lifting Body.The success of Dryden´s M2_F1 program led to NASA´s development and construction of two heavyweight lifting bodies based on studies at NASA´s Ames and Langley research centers __ the M2_F2 and the HL_10, both built by the Northrop Corporation. The M refers to manned and F refers to flight version. HL comes from horizontal landing and 10 is for the tenth lifting body model to be investigated by Langley. The first flight of the M2_F2 __ which looked much like the F1 __ was on July 12, 1966. Milt Thompson was the pilot. By then, the same B_52 used to air launch the famed X_15 rocket research aircraft was modified to also carry the lifting bodies. Thompson was dropped from the B_52´s wing pylon mount at an altitude of 45,000 feet on that maiden glide flight. The M2_F2 weighed 4,620 pounds, was 22 feet long, and had a width of about 10 feet. On May 10, 1967, during the sixteenth glide flight leading up to powered flight, a landing accident severely damaged the vehicle and seriously injured the NASA pilot, Bruce Peterson. NASA pilots and researchers realized the M2_F2 had lateral control problems, even though it had a stability augmentation control system. When the M2_F2 was rebuilt at Dryden and redesignated the M2_F3, it was modified with an additional third vertical fin __ centered between the tip fins __ to improve control characteristics. The M2_F2/F3 was the first of the heavy_weight, entry_configuration lifting bodies. Its successful development as a research test vehicle answered many of the generic questions about these vehicles.NASA donated The M2_F3 vehicle to the Smithsonian Institute in December 1973. It is currently hanging in the Air and Space Museum along with the X_15 aircraft number 1, which was its hangar partner at Dryden from 1965 to 1969.