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that included the lifting body designs. General Electric, Bell Aerospace, Martin, Hydrag and Convair were studying all of the NASA con- cepts, from the baseline M-1 ballistic capsule to the lifting body proposals and including the lenticular craft which was favoured by the STG. Convair and their subcontractor Avco produced a refined version of the Langley lenticular design, which at 4.4 had the great- est hypersonic lift/drag ratio of all the re-entry vehicle proposals. Their design would suffer from less severe afterbody heating than a cone or winged lift- ing body shape and, consequently, it would need less thermal protection and shielding. The vehicle had a gross weight of 5,2181b (2,367kg) and a diameter of 16ft (4.88m). It also met the cross range requirement of 1,000 miles (1,600km). Because of its dimensions this spacecraft would have been packaged upside down on the top on the launch vehi- cle, with the propulsion module above it and Above right: Early artwork from NASA Langley, showing ideas for a flying saucer-shaped re-entry vehicle. NASA Below: A circular re-entry vehicle conceived by NASA scientist Alan B Kehlet during the early part of the Apollo Moon program. US Patent Office 121 Right: A drawing of the NASA Kehlet re-entry vehicle showing the wings fully folded. US Patent Office Below right: The NASA Kehlet re-entry vehicle with wings fully extended. US Patent Office Flying Saucer Spacecraft