An early Douglas attempt at a Lifting Body design for NASA.


The X15 had explored the use of ceramic ablatives to protect the fuselage during hypersonic flight. Test pilots described later lifting body designs as having "flown like a turd" and having descended like "a 15 pound cow patty out the back of a long legged camel." Douglas already had a ceramic container for turds and in typical fashion sought a derivative solution. As with all Douglas design, you start with what you already have and design a fix.


Eventually Douglas figured out that "flys like a turd" was not a design requirement, or even desired by the operator. Having milked a government contract for $15,000,000,0000,0000 plus cost over-runs the design was sold for $25 and a sleeve of Biscoff Cookies to a gentleman who remarketed the ablative water injection system with boudary layer airflow control as a turd cleaning toilet seat for overweight geriatrics.