In this historical photo from the U.S. space agency, a demonstration of a vertical landing by the NASA Ames Research Center's Bell X-14A Vertical Take-off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft, Dec. 7, 1962. Vanes in the jet exhaust pipe are then turned to deflect the jet exhaust downward allowing the aircraft to descend vertically to a soft landing.
Each weekday, SPACE.com looks back at the history of spaceflight through photos (archive).
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