Title: X-30 NASP
Designer: Unknown
Year it was designed: circa 1987
Explanation or story behind the patch: The X-30A National Aero-Space Plane was intended to develop technologies for hypersonic airbreathing aircraft systems and technologies. There were several competing contractor configurations, as well as a government configuration. The original intent was to develop an airbreathing aircraft that could take-off horizontally from a runway, fly to Low Earth Orbit, and return to land horizontally on a runway. The original impetus for the idea was Tony DuPont’s “Orient Express,” an aircraft that could fly from the Continental US to East Asia in 2 hours or less. While much technology development was completed, no aircraft were built, though a spin-off of the X-30A NASP was the X-43A Hyper-X.
For more information on the X-30 National Aero-Space Plane, click: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/pdf/88234main_H-1722.pdf