Air Force Museum
Missiles and Space
10 reading stories
Enter the experience →Advance Biomedical Capsule
Before a human could be sent into space, researchers had to learn how a living body would respond to acceleration, vibration, confinement, weightlessness, and recovery. The Advance Biomedical Capsule belonged to a research program that trained chimpanzees to perform simple tasks while instruments recorded their reactions. At Holloman Air Force Base, the animals learned to respond to lights and levers during repeated training sessions.
Read the story →AFTI F-16
The Advanced Fighter Technology Integration F-16 tested digital flight controls, automated maneuvering, new cockpit interfaces, and other systems that moved aircraft capability into software. This modified F-16 became a flying laboratory for integrating new sensors, controls, displays, and computers. Across more than seven hundred flights, it supported ten major research programs involving precise automatic flight, targeting, ground-collision avoidance, voice control, touch displays, and other experimental systems.
Read the story →Five Stars in Space
General Henry H. Arnold's five-star insignia flew aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour as a symbolic link between early air-power research and the space age. General Henry H. 'Hap' Arnold led the Army Air Forces during World War II and argued that long-term scientific research was essential to future air power. In 2011, his five-star rank insignia traveled aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour during STS-134, a mission to the International Space Station.
Read the story →Gen. T.D. White
General Thomas D. White served as Air Force Chief of Staff as missiles, satellites, and space operations became central national priorities. Thomas D. White entered military aviation during the interwar years and became Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force in 1957. His tenure coincided with Sputnik, the rapid development of long-range missiles, the creation of NASA, and intense debate over military responsibilities in space.
Read the story →HAM the Astrochimp
Ham's Mercury-Redstone flight demonstrated that a trained passenger could perform tasks during launch, weightlessness, reentry, and recovery. On January 31, 1961, a chimpanzee named Ham rode Mercury-Redstone 2 on a suborbital flight. He spent about sixteen and a half minutes in flight and experienced nearly seven minutes of weightlessness. Inside the capsule, Ham responded to lights by operating levers while instruments recorded both his performance and his physical condition.
Read the story →Moon Rock
A small lunar sample can hold evidence about the Moon's formation, its ancient surface, and the history of the solar system. Apollo 16 carried astronauts John Young, Charles Duke, and Thomas Mattingly to the Moon in April 1972. Young and Duke spent nearly three days on the surface, completed more than twenty hours of exploration outside the lunar module, and helped return more than 211 pounds of samples to Earth.
Read the story →X-13 Vertijet
The X-13 proved that a jet could take off vertically, transition to horizontal flight, and return to a vertical landing platform. The Ryan X-13 stood on its tail for takeoff. A pilot used thrust for vertical lift, small control jets for low-speed attitude control, and conventional aerodynamic surfaces after transitioning into forward flight. For landing, the aircraft returned to a vertical attitude and caught a cable suspended from a mobile platform.
Read the story →X-3
The Douglas X-3 Stiletto never achieved its intended Mach 2 performance in level flight, but its unusual shape and flight behavior produced valuable research. The X-3 was built to investigate sustained supersonic flight with a long pointed fuselage, very small wings, and extensive use of titanium. Its engines did not deliver enough thrust for the original goal, and the aircraft's maximum speed in level flight was about 650 miles per hour.
Read the story →XB-70 Valkyrie
The six-engine XB-70 was designed as a high-altitude Mach 3 bomber, then became a research platform when strategy and technology changed around it. North American Aviation designed the XB-70 to carry a nuclear weapon at very high altitude and roughly three times the speed of sound. Its delta wing and folding outer panels used compression lift: shock waves formed beneath the aircraft helped increase lift while the lowered tips added stability at high speed.
Read the story →YF-23A
The YF-23 was one of two competing prototypes built for the Advanced Tactical Fighter program. Its form emphasized low radar visibility, speed, and aerodynamic efficiency. Northrop and McDonnell Douglas built the YF-23 to compete against the Lockheed-led YF-22. The aircraft used a blended shape, diamond-like wings, canted tail surfaces, buried engines, and carefully treated exhaust paths to reduce detection while maintaining high-speed performance.
Read the story →