The Douglas Aircraft Company built four F5D-1 Skylancers. They were built for the Navy as an all-weather fighter interceptor that never made production. The four experimental aircraft were developed with the same basic airframe as the Douglas F4D Skyray, but because of increasing modifications were re-designated F5D-1s before the craft ever flew. The airplanes were equipped with Pratt & Whitney J57-P12 engines. One of the planes was lost on the first Navy flight test.
NASA’s Flight Research Center obtained two F5D-1 Skylancers in 1961. F5D-1 (Bu. No. 139208) NASA 212, and F5D-1 (Bu. No. 142350) NASA 213, later becoming NASA 708 and NASA 802 respectively.
Under development for the Air Force by Boeing Aircraft Company was Dyna-Soar (Dynamic Soaring) that had a Sanger-like boost-glider design that was to have been lofted into orbit by a Titan III booster. The X-20 Dyna-Soar was canceled before it could be flown. Its general configuration was that of a hypersonic slender delta, a flat-bottom glider using radiative cooling…Learn more
F-5D Skylancer #708 is currently on display at the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in McMinnville, OR.