The concept of a lifting body, runway-landable, rocket launched spacecraft is probably older than you think. Austrian engineer Eugen Sänger thought up a rocket-powered intercontinental space bomber in 1942. Like German subsonic jet advances leading to the B47, this concept was also picked up by Boeing in 1944, and the little wingless space shuttle became the X-20, aka Dyna-Soar (dynamic soaring). The project was cancelled in 1963, a year before the X-20’s anticipated first flight.

Flying without Wings is a fascinating book, and I wish I’d bought it years ago. it will appeal to those who maintain an interest in the finer details of handling a flying device, and I suspect - certainly hope - that many professionals still retain this fundamental survival skill. Today’s industry does its best to replace such awareness and understanding with truly wonderful automation - but one never knows when fate might knock on the cockpit door.

Author Milton Thompson died in 1993, in his fifties, and not from a flying accident. The book lay unfinished: and it was in 1997 that Mr Peebles was given access to his notes and technical papers, and asked to complete this detailed and accessible account of a special area of experimental research.

It’s about gliding and gliders of assorted shapes and sizes. Once the project settled down to the lifting body title much of the handling research on several different models was carried out using the B52 as a dropping device. Any reader familiar with the glide approach will recognise the principles, but get these typical numbers:

Release height 40,000ft

Rate of descent 10,000 fpm. (4 minutes flight time)

Glide angle 35 degrees

Speed Variable for handling tests, but 300 kts finals to achieve level flight at touchdown (maybe 150 kts give or take . .etc.)

Flare height Higher than you’d guess, sometimes indicated by hovering rescue helo

High Key (for dead-stick jet pilots, downwind, abeam touchdown point) 35,000ft

There were relatively few accidents, and Milton Thompson ran the piloting part of this programme which included checking out various famous astronaut test pilots. Initial research tried the Rogallo wing (father of the hang-glider) and aero-tow skills with Piper Cub or Cessna Bird Dog were part of a very catholic school curriculum. The X-15 was tops for performance in this fantastic flying club (my words), with F104 chase duties or glide simulation practice. It turns out that this interceptor, throttled back with speed brake and flaps applied, had a similar glide to the metal lifting bodies.

But that’s enough secrets. What a great read! I think it’s all true, and Milton Thompson gets my vote for a safe pair of hands.