X-19 suborbital aircraft

The X-19 suborbital aircraft is a fictional airplane featured in comic books published by DC Comics. It is associated with the Doom Patrol line of titles and plays a major role in the origin of Larry Trainor, aka Negative Man. It first appeared in flashback in My Greatest Adventure #80 in June, 1963.

When Larry had to fly the experimental X-19, a suborbital jet aircraft, Larry put the plane through its paces and successfully broke Earth's atmosphere. However, Niles Caulder, in his plan to create a team of super powered misfits, caused the jet's guidance systems to break down, sending Larry into a field of deadly radiation. Falling unconscious, Larry drifted through the stratospheric wave belts for several hours. Earth's gravity eventually pulled the X-19 back into the atmosphere, where it began spiraling back down to Earth. Larry awakened in time to prevent the X-19 from crashing into the ground.

Upon landing the jet, Trainor noticed a nearby search plane coming into view. It attempted to land near the X-19, but suffered from a malfunctioning landing strut. An intense desire to aid the beleaguered craft passed through Larry's mind when suddenly, a bizarre radioactive energy being flew outward from his body with his mind and consciousness residing in the being while his body left behind was a husk. As the energy, he guided the search plane to safety.