List of rocket planes Information & List of rocket planes Links at HealthHaven.com

This List of rocket planes is an incomplete listing, loosely chronological sorted by type used for launch, of some aircraft that used rocket propulsion:

[edit] Spaceplanes

Spaceplanes are aircraft that are able to reach the edge of space.

1945 Germany - A4b winged version of V-2 rocket - unmanned, test flights only
1959 United States - X-15 - manned, carried aloft under the wing of a B-52, conducted numerous supersonic and hypersonic flights
1981 United States - Space Shuttle - manned (unable to fly unmanned, rocket assisted vertical take-off) lands unpowered
1988 Soviet Union - Buran Shuttle - unmanned test flight (designed to be manned, but no need to be manned, rocket assisted vertical take-off)
2004 United States - Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne - manned, has a hybrid rocket motor and performed first civilian-funded reusable spacecraft, flights begin with the White Knight lifting SpaceShipOne to about 14 km
2006 United States - X-37 - unmanned (technology demonstrator)

[edit] Rocket planes with conventional take-off

1928 Germany Lippisch Ente
1929 Germany Opel RAK.1

1939 Germany He 176 world's first liquid-fuel rocket powered test plane
1940 Soviet Union RP-318-1 powered by Glushko and Dushkin engines, unmanned tests in 1938.
1940 Germany DFS 194 rocket powered glider test plane
1942 Soviet Union Bereznyak-Isayev BI-1 close-range fighter powered by Dushkin and Isaev engines
194x Germany Me 163 rocket powered fighter (extensive use in World War II)
194x Germany Me 263 also known as Ju 248, development of Me 163

1944 Soviet Union Su-7 Modified Sukhoy Su-6 with RD-1KhZ (chemical ignition RD-1) engine.
1945 Soviet Union Yak-3RD Modified Yakovlev Yak-3 with Glushko RD-1KhZ engine.
1945 Japan Mitsubishi J8M, licence-built copy of the Messerschmitt Me 163 "Komet"
1945 Soviet Union La-7R variant of Lavachkin fighter, with Glushko's RD-1KhZ engine.

1948 Soviet Union Bisnovat 5 Russian design based from earlier captured DFS 346, cancelled (never flew under power)
2001 United States EZ-Rocket Customized Rutan Long-EZ, experimental model.
2007 United States X-Racer Customized Velocity SE, prototype for Rocket Racing League.

[edit] Air launched rocket planes

1944 Germany - Selbstopfer - near-suicide mission manned version of the V-1 Flying Bomb to be dropped from a modified Heinkel He 111
1945 Japan Ohka - manned air-launched kamikaze aircraft
1947 United States Bell X-1 - manned, first plane to break the sound barrier in controlled, level flight (Also conventional take off on one occasion)
1953 United States Douglas D-588-II Skyrocket - manned supersonic research aircraft
1955 United States Bell X-2 - manned supersonic research aircraft

[edit] Rocket planes taking off vertically

1945 Germany - Bachem Ba 349 "Natter" - manned surface-to-air missile (Lothar Sieber)
1963 United States - ASSET - unmanned atmospheric reentry test vehicle
1966 United States - X-23 PRIME - unmanned atmospheric reentry test vehicle
1982 Soviet Union - BOR-4 - unmanned atmospheric reentry test vehicle

[edit] Mixed power rocket planes

All conventional take off designs.

Saunders-Roe SR.53 United Kingdom - manned, mixed power rocket and jet engines.
Saunders-Roe SR.177 United Kingdom - manned, development of SR.53, project cancelled before first flight
XF-91 Thunderceptor United States - manned, mixed power rocket and jet engines
Douglas Skyrocket United States - manned, mixed power
Lockheed NF-104A United States - manned, mixed power rocket and jet engine
SNCASO SO 9000 Trident France - manned, mixed power rocket (tail) and turbojet engines (wingtips)

(A number of Soviet fighter aircraft were modified as mixed power interceptors)

[edit] See also