OTD In Space – May 10: M2-F2 Lifting Body Crashes

On May 10, 1967, a NASA research aircraft known as the wingless M2-F2 lifting body crashed on Rogers Dry Lakebed at the Dryden Flight Research Center in California.

The test pilot, Bruce Peterson, was severely injured, but he survived, although he did lose his vision in his right eye. Peterson was coming in for a landing during a glide test flight when the plane starting doing something called a "Dutch roll" oscillation. He regained control, but then he got distracted when he thought he was about to hit a recovery helicopter. The M2-F2 didn't hit the helicopter, but it did drift away from the runway. Without the markers, it was difficult for the pilot to judge how high he was flying. He didn't deploy the landing gear in time, and the M2-F2 smacked into the ground, rolled over six times, and came to rest upside-down. Footage from the crash later became famous when it was featured in the TV show "The Six Million Dollar Man" in the 1970s.