You’re looking at the first experimental vertical take off & landing (VTOL) jet, and one of the first jet-powered drones known as “Project Firebee”. From the San Diego Air & Space Museum account on Flickr, which makes for a great Apple TV screensaver, if i do say so myself.
Vintage Top-Secret Planes
12.18.2012
I could look at stuff like this for hours.
I have a dreamlike memory of a documentary, similar quality footage to these photos, where it highlighted a garbage can like floating machine. It really just looked like a can that you step into and it would float up to say 20ft.
This memory makes everything from this era, fiction or not, seem like a fantasy come to life. This VTOL jet is definitely not an exception to this fantasy world.
That Ryan logo in the second image is amazing