Some cool tech was there. They got so far with it as well — search for it on YouTube and you can find videos of various aspects of research that went into it. [1..6]
I like the landing skids that used the stretching of metal as the means to adsorb the shock of landing - reminds me somewhat of the metal honeycomb that collapsed to adsorb the lunar module landing on the moon.
I believe water circulated through the skin of the craft near the astronaut compartment to take heat away during reentry.
I recall that the nose of the craft was made of a rather interesting material. That may've been shared with the X-15 as well.
Enough blueprints too are available for the craft-that-never-flew that I enjoyed creating a kind of balsa-kit-that-never-existed. [7] A very pretty plane it was/wasnt.
[1] https://youtu.be/TkWg4dd7e8w
[2] https://youtu.be/8Bn5A0oNpuM
[3] https://youtu.be/drfcrl_vc8M
[4] https://youtu.be/muNYhj9DFrM
[5] https://youtu.be/TikodTMGdP0
Dream Chaser is an American reusable lifting-body spaceplane being developed by Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) Space Systems. Originally intended as a crewed vehicle, the Dream Chaser Space System is set to be produced after the cargo variant, Dream Chaser Cargo System, is operational.
The Dream Chaser design is derived from NASA's HL-20 Personnel Launch System spaceplane concept, which in turn is descended from a series of test vehicles, including the X-20 Dyna-Soar, Northrop M2-F2, Northrop M2-F3, Northrop HL-10, Martin X-24A and X-24B, and Martin X-23 PRIME.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_Chaser
The Boeing X-37, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), is a reusable robotic spacecraft. It is boosted into space by a launch vehicle, then re-enters Earth's atmosphere and lands as a spaceplane.
Apparently they park it in orbit instead of a hangar to make it look as if it is actually "on a mission".
In political jargon, a self-licking ice cream cone is a self-perpetuating system that has no purpose other than to sustain itself. The phrase appeared to have been first used in 1991–1992, in a book about Gulf War weapons systems by Norman Friedman, and On Self-Licking Ice Cream Cones, a paper by Pete Worden about NASA's bureaucracy, to describe the relationship between the Space Shuttle and Space Station.
But he's not wrong.
I don't care about the other planes on the list, but the B-70 Valkyrie absolutely deserves to be a cult plane.
It is one of the most visually striking and beautiful planes ever built. Combine that with an absolutely insane performance characteristics and engineering, and you can see why it is a cult plane.
Its flight performance is quite impressive (32 minutes of sustained Mach 3), but as a theoretical bomber, it leaves a lot to be desired.
(German: Da war der Lack ab!)
But those that never get into production often have less compromise in some areas, and that is probably a large factor in why they become cult planes.
