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 The X-24A lights its XLR-11 rocket engine and begins its powered flight after being drop launched from its B-52 mothership, seen here with high-altitude contrails streaming from its wings against a dark blue sky. Air Force Maj. Jerauld Gentry at the controls for its first powered flight on March 19, 1970.

 The X-24 was one of a group of lifting bodies flown by the NASA Flight Research Center (now Dryden Flight Research Center), Edwards, California, in a joint program with the U.S. Air Force at Edwards Air Force Base from 1963 to 1975. The lifting bodies were used to demonstrate the ability of pilots to maneuver and safely land wingless vehicles designed to fly back to Earth from space and be landed like an airplane at a predetermined site.