In 1957, Darrell Romick of Goodyear produced the “Meteor Jr.” design for a three stage fully reusable manned launch vehicle, a smaller version of the “Meteor” design from 1954. The designs were straightforward, with simple but gigantic delta wings.
As with other, similar designs of the period, such as Werner von Brauns “Ferry rocket” and derivatives, the math behind the performance of the Meteor Jr. was sound. However, like those other designs, the physics underlying re-entry would have trashed the Meteor Jr. Thin sharp wings made out of steel simply cannot withstand the aerothermal heating. Additionally, the large bubble canopies would have been at best problematic.
The Air & Space Museum Udvar-Hazy facility has a Goodyear display model of the Meteor Jr. vehicle on display.
I remember this from a childrens’ book I had when I was a kid. I can’t find it on the web anywhere, but I know the spacecraft in the book was based on the Meteor Jr. This book had to have been from the late 1950s. And I thought everything was on the internet…