"HL" comes from "horizontal landing" and 10 is for the tenth lifting body model to be investigated by Langley.

He was dropped from the B-52 carrier aircraft's wing pylon at an altitude of 45,000 ft (14,000 m) and reached a speed of about 450 mph (720 km/h; 390 kn).

On May 10, 1967, the sixteenth and last glide flight ended in disaster as the vehicle slammed into the lake bed on landing.

Portions of M2-F2 footage including Peterson's spectacular crash landing were used for the 1973 television series The Six Million Dollar Man[2] though some shots during the opening credits of the series showed the later HL-10 model, during release from its carrier plane, a modified B-52.

When the M2-F2 was rebuilt at Dryden and redesignated the M2-F3, it was modified with an additional third vertical fin—centered between the tip fins to improve control characteristics.