Original vintage 1969 Sperry Rand Cold War advertisement for its involvement in the Martin Marietta-built U.S. Air Force X-24A experimental aircraft, which was used to demonstrate the ability of pilots to maneuver and safely land wingless vehicles designed to fly back to Earth from space and be landed like an airplane at a predetermined site.  The X-24A shape was later borrowed for the X-38 Crew Return Vehicle (CRV) technology demonstrator for the International Space Station.
 
Dimensions: Approx. 8 inches wide by 11 inches high.  
 
"How do you stabilize a vehicle shaped like a deflated football so it will fly as smoothly as a 60-yard touch-down pass?  The assignment was to stabilize the Martin Marietta-built Air Force X-24A "lifting body" - a three-ton, wingless aircraft that plunges 10,000 feet a minute on its way home in free fall..-.Whatever the shape or size of aircraft to come - with or without wings - count on Sperry to understand..."
 
More than outer space, Sperry expanded into a Cold War powerhouse, vis-a-vis guidance systems and more for NATO weaponry (to include ballistic missiles).
 
The Martin Marietta X-24A
The Martin Marietta X-24 is an American experimental aircraft developed from a joint United States Air Force–NASA program named PILOT (1963–1975).  It was designed and built to test lifting body concepts, experimenting with the concept of unpowered reentry and landing, later used by the Space Shuttle. Originally built as the X-24A, the aircraft was later rebuilt as the X-24B.
 
The X-24 was drop launched from a modified B-52 Stratofortress at high altitudes before igniting its rocket engine; after expending its rocket fuel, the pilot would glide the X-24 to an unpowered landing.
 
The X-24 was one of a group of lifting bodies flown by the NASA Flight Research Center (now Armstrong Flight Research Center) in a joint program with the U.S. Air Force at Edwards Air Force Base in California from 1963 to 1975.  The lifting bodies were used to demonstrate the ability of pilots to maneuver and safely land wingless vehicles designed to fly back to Earth from space and be landed like an airplane at a predetermined site.
 
Lifting bodies’ aerodynamic lift, essential to flight in the atmosphere, was obtained from their shape. The addition of fins and control surfaces allowed the pilots to stabilize and control the vehicles and regulate their flight paths.
 
The X-24 (Model SV-5P) was built by Martin Marietta (and Sperry Rand, of course) and flown from Edwards.  The X-24A was the fourth lifting body design to fly; it followed the NASA M2-F1 in 1964, the Northrop HL-10 in (1966), the Northrop M2-F2 in 1966 and preceded the Northrop M2-F3 (1970).
 
The X-24A was a fat, short teardrop shape with three fins for control—the center fin vertical and the left and right fins canted slightly outward.  It made its first, unpowered, glide flight on April 17, 1969 with Air Force Maj. Jerauld R. Gentry at the controls.  Gentry also piloted its first powered flight on March 19, 1970.  
 
The craft was taken to around 45,000 feet (13.7 km) by a modified B-52, drop-launched, then either glided down or used its rocket engine to ascend to higher altitudes before gliding down.  The X-24A was flown 28 times at speeds up to 1,036 mph (1,667 km/h) and altitudes up to 71,400 feet (21.8 km).
 
The X-24A was flown 28 times in the program that, like the HL-10, validated the concept that a Space Shuttle vehicle could be landed unpowered.  The fastest speed achieved by the X-24A was 1,036 miles per hour (1,667 km/h) miles per hour, or Mach 1.6.  Powered by an XLR-11 rocket engine with a maximum theoretical vacuum thrust of 8,480 pounds-force (37.7 kN), its maximum altitude was 71,400 feet (21.8 km. 
 
The X-24A was modified into the more stable X-24B with an entirely different shape in 1972.  The bulbous shape of the X-24A was converted into a "flying flatiron" shape with a rounded top, flat bottom, and double delta planform that ended in a pointed nose.  It was the basis for the Martin SV-5J.  The X-24A shape was later borrowed for the X-38 Crew Return Vehicle (CRV) technology demonstrator for the International Space Station.
 
The Sperry Rand Corporation
The history of the Sperry Corporation is the story of technological innovation and the application of that technology to everyday, real-world uses - indeed, the aerospace company played a critical role in the advancement of aerospace and space exploration during the 1960s "space race" between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
 
Named after its founder, Elmer A. Sperry, and established on April 19, 1910, with no outside financing, no products, no employees, but with an "unquenchable enthusiasm," Sperry grew to be a multinational technological powerhouse.
 
In 1911, the first Sperry gyroscope was installed aboard the Old Dominion Line PRINCESS ANNE for a trial run from New York to Hampton Roads, Virginia.  Upon completing this trial the unit was brought back to New York and installed aboard the U.S.S. DELAWARE.  Trials aboard the DELAWARE were launched starting on August 18, 1911.  From this trial aboard the DELAWARE an order for four systems soon arrived from the U.S. Navy.
 
Fast forward to World War II, and in recognition of Elmer A. Sperry's contribution to the people and government of the U.S., the U.S. Navy in 1941 laid the keel for AS-12, the USS SPERRY at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in California.  On December 17, 1941, the USS SPERRY was launched and had the dubious distinction of being the first U.S. Naval combatant commissioned after the attack on Pearl Harbor.  The USS SPERRY, a fleet Submarine Tender, served throughout the war, spending her entire time in the western Pacific.  She served with distinction until 1982 and after 40 years of service was moved to Bremerton, Washington, where she sits today awaiting final disposition.
 
At the end of the war, the Sperry Corporation and its subsidiary, Gyroscope, saw great expansion.  Much of this expansion was attributable to emerging electronics technologies.  This expansion eventually led to the acquisition of the Remington Rand Corporation in 1955.
 
At the completion of the acquisition, Sperry Corporation became the Sperry Rand Corporation and stayed with this name until 1979.  At about the same time as the Rand acquisition, Sperry Gyroscope decided to open a facility that would almost exclusively produce its marine instruments.  After considerable searching and evaluation, the Charlottesville area of Central Virginia was selected as the site.