The idea of a spacecraft returning from space to a horizontal landing had been around for decades before the first operational space shuttle flight in 1982. A proposal had been submitted to NACA, NASA's predecessor, in 1954, just eight years after the Second World War.
That proposal would ultimately become the X-15 aircraft but classified studies in to the next generation of space transportation systems continued. An important part of these studies was the production of concept art which could help senior military and political figures to visualize the potential shape of things to come.
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