On this date in 1962, residents of North Dakota read with interest about their connection to a young man selected to work for a relatively new, but well-known agency – NASA. Major Donald M. Sorlie was one of eight test pilots selected for a new space pilot course.
Sorlie was the grandson of early settlers, Mr. and Mrs. I. E. Sorlie, who farmed near Churchs Ferry. Sorlie graduated from Fargo Central High, and studied at North Dakota State University.
Aeronautics was not new for him; he joined the Air National Guard while in Fargo and ended up flying Saberjets in Korea, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross. He later became the chief of Electronics Manned Interceptor Projects at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio.
Sorlie ended up working with the Lifting Body Program at NASA's flight research center at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The program worked to develop vehicles that provided lift with minimal wing surface. The goal was to determine the potential of such a craft to reenter from space and safely land.
It was determined that a flight demonstration of some sort was needed. The first vehicle, the M2-F1, was a lightweight, unpowered prototype. Later iterations would include rocket engines. These first research vehicles were unique and unconventional, with most of their aerodynamic lift from their shape rather than wings. An unofficial motto for the program was "don't be rescued from outer space – fly back in style."
The M2-F1 was tested in wind-tunnels and acted as a glider. In 1963, it was even "flown" by fastening the vehicle to a car with a 1,000 foot rope and towing it around open roads – a promising start. Once it was powered, the M2-F1 would fly for three more years, piloted by Chuck Yeager, Bruce Peterson, Don Mallick, Jerry Gentry, and North Dakota's own, Donald Sorlie.
And, as you have probably guessed by now, the project led to the development of the space shuttle, which took flight in 1981.
Dakota Datebook by Sarah Walker
Sources:
Devils Lake World, May 9, 1962, p1
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/armstrong/multimedia/movies/milestones/M2-F1/index.html
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/armstrong/news/FactSheets/FS-011-DFRC.html
