Model, Space Plane, Wind Tunnel, X-20 Dyna-Soar

This is a wind tunnel model of unknown scale of the X-20 Dyna-Soar (Dynamic Soaring), a prototype for a piloted, reusable spaceplane. Originally conceived by German aerospace designer Eugen Saenger as a skip-glide rocket bomber with intercontinental range, the concept was transformed by the U.S. Air Force into a manned reconnaissance platform in space. Designed to be launched by rocket into orbit, the X-20 was a "lifting body" design and would have landed like an airplane. The Dyna-Soar program was cancelled in December 1963, before the first manned test flight that was scheduled for the following year.

NASA's Langley Research Center made and donated the model.