The Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle is a European Space Agency experimental suborbital re-entry vehicle. It was developed to serve as a prototype lifting body orbital return vehicle to validate the
Artist's view of IXV reentry phase
Vega rocket
frontal view of the vehicle
Drop-test model of the IXV with the flotation balloons inflated, as displayed in ESA ESTEC. The flaps in this model cannot move.
Lifting body
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A lifting body is a fixed-wing aircraft or spacecraft configuration in which the body itself produces lift. In contrast to a flying wing, which is a wing with minimal or no conventional fuselage, a li
US X-24A, M2-F3 and HL-10 lifting bodies
The Martin Aircraft Company X-24 built as part of a 1963 to 1975 experimental US military program
Burnelli General Airborne Transport XCG-16, a lifting body aircraft (1944)
This F-15D Eagle was able to successfully maintain control - and perform an emergency landing - after a mid-air collision in 1983 that resulted in the loss of one of its wings, in part due to lift generated from its fuselage.