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Sanger spaceplane designed during World War Two. This concept was decades ahead of its time and is now seen as the true ancestor to all vehicles like the US Shuttle Orbiter. via Bill Rose Under test during World War Two, the liquid-fuel rocket engine designed for use with the Sanger spaceplane. via Bill Rose This US Army document is thought to show a mock- up of the Sanger Spaceplane built at the Lofer research facility near Salzburg and discovered by the US Army when the war ended. US Army ject was unknown outside official circles, the USAF at Wright-Patterson AFB formally re- classified the LRV space bomber as Secret on 12th December 1962. Studies may have continued beyond this point, probably involving wind tunnel tests and perhaps air-drops of scale models, but nothing else is known about the project. Speculation that the LRV was secretly built and tested appears totally unfounded, as it would have been almost impossible to hide the launch of an LRV on a high-altitude or orbital test flight. It is always possible that a rumoured full-sized mock-up was assem- bled, but no details of this have been released. Many elements of the LRV resurfaced dur- ing 1963 after NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center awarded North American Aviation a $342,000 contract to study a spaceplane sys- tem called the Reusable Ten Ton Orbital Car- rier Vehicle (RTTOCV). North American’s system comprised a compact lenticular- shaped spacecraft, which was almost identi- cal to the LRV in appearance. It would be capable of carrying ten crewmembers or ten tons of cargo to a future space station. The sled-launched booster system consisted of two fully reusable delta-winged vehicles. The larger vehicle would be 108ft (32.9m) in length and powered by one F-1 and two H-1 liquid fuel rocket motors, along with two tur- bojets for return to base and a controlled run- way landing. The second smaller but similar stage would be powered by three liquid fuel J-2 engines used for the Saturn rocket. The gross lift-off weight for the entire system was projected at 605 tons (614,680kg) and the payload capability was expected to be mar- ginally better than that specified by NASA, with the ability to carry twelve astronauts or twelve tons (10,886kg) of cargo to a 114-mile (185km)-high orbit, with an inclination of 28°. Lockheed were awarded a broadly similar eighteen-month research contract by NASA to conduct a sled-launched manned space- craft study under the same RTTOCV pro- gramme. The Lockheed study evolved from Sanger spaceplane designed during World War Two. This concept was decades ahead of its time and is now seen as the true ancestor to all vehicles like the US Shuttle Orbiter. via Bill Rose Under test during World War Two, the liquid-fuel rocket engine designed for use with the Sanger spaceplane. via Bill Rose 126 Secret Projects: Flying Saucer Aircraft