NASA test pilot Neil Armstrong used the F5D Skylancer in the early 1960s to create an emergency abort launch and landing procedure for NASA's Dyna-Soar program because the aircraft had aerodynamics similar to the Dyna-Soar X-20 space plane. Armstrong and other test pilots flew the abort maneuver more than 40 times. NASA 213, later renumbered 802, also served in the Lifting Bodies program as a chase plane until its retirement in 1970, helping test how a vehicle's shape rather than its wings could create lift, information later used in developing the Space Shuttle. In 1972, the F5D Skylancer arrived at the Armstrong Air & Space Museum with tail number 802, and in May 2018 it returned from an eight-month restoration as NASA 213, the designation it carried when Armstrong flew it.