rocket plane

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

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)

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.

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

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

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)

See also

• Pegasus rocket
• Rocket-powered aircraft
• List of rockets
• Rocket Racing League (RRL)