Unconventional, Contrary, and Ugly - Lunar Landing Research Vehicle
(NASA SP-2006-4535)

Dan Lasley sent me a note on a forth coming monograph about the LLRV. I have yet to find it at the Dryden History site, so do keep an eye out for it (http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/history/index.html).

Landing on the Moon with no air resistance (vacuum) and with a pull of only
1/6 th what would be felt on Earth makes for an interesting training exercise.

How do you go about training for landing on the Moon while still here on Earth?

I built an air cushion cart for a 500 pound cruise box so my supply person could move the box of electronic equipment from an airplane into the supply room using a vacuum cleaner on blow. It was just a plastic pillow made out of bubble wrap inside a 2 x 4, plywood box frame with pin holes poked in the bottom side. When you filled the pillow with air from a vacuum cleaner blowing into it, the escaping air underneath would let you slide the heavy box over the floor.

If you took the box off and stood on the platform, the pillow would balloon up and you could attempt to slide around the shop in thrust vector mode.
Not done too many times as I tended to destroy the shop. :-)

Now think of a metal bed frame with a jet engine blowing down and you sitting in the bed trying to fly this bed in a controlled fashion to a save landing.

There are some links below to some info on the LLRV that was flown out of NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, at Edwards Air Force Base, California.

I should think that a monograph entitled, "Unconventional, Contrary, and Ugly - Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (NASA SP-2006-4535)" should be an interesting read.
- LRK -

Until then - some links - see here and below - LRK -
-------------------------------------------------------------
http://area51specialprojects.com/llrv.html
LUNAR LANDING RESEARACH VEHICLE
By: T.D. Barnes - NASA Contractor - 1060s Snip
-------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsltr.: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
==============================================================
Larry,

Thought you'd like to see this. If you haven't heard of NASA's monographs, you can get them for the price of postage ($3 or so). I have a couple (one on analog computing, one on the X-15); both are excellent.

Dan
--------------------------------------------------------------
>From: owner-history@lists.hq.nasa.gov >On Behalf Of Garber, Stephen J.
(HQ-ND020)
>Sent: Thursday, November 16, 2006 9:34 AM
>To: history@lists.hq.nasa.gov
>Subject: NASA History Division internship opportunity and new
>publication


The NASA History Division is looking for interns for the winter/spring 2007 semester. More information is at http://history.nasa.gov/interncall.htm
on-line. The deadline for applications is December 22. Please forward this information to any interested students.

We are also pleased to announce a new monograph.
Unconventional, Contrary, and Ugly: The Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (NASA
SP-2006-4535) by Gene J. Matranga, C. Wayne Ottinger, Calvin R.
Jarvis, with D. Christian Gelzer is Monograph in Aerospace History #35.
With a foreword by Neil Armstrong explaining the importance of the LLRV, this monograph tells the fascinating story of how engineers, largely at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, developed a vehicle to touch down on the Moon. These engineers faced remarkable challenges, considering that the Moon has no atmosphere (to support winged flight), one-sixth of the Earth's gravity, and obviously no existing physical guiding infrastructure for pilots such as beacon lights or landing strips. An electronic version of this monograph should be available soon through the Dryden History site (http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/history/index.html ). Hard copies of this monograph may be requested through NASA Dryden (http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/about/contact_us.html ) as well.

Stephen Garber
NASA History Division
Mail Suite CO72, Room 7U82
NASA Headquarters
Washington, DC 20546
202-358-0385
202-358-4382 or 202-358-2866 fax
--------------------------------------------------------------
THANKS DAN, DON'T SEE IT THERE YET BUT SEE SOME OTHER LINKS ABOUT THE LLRV BELOW. - LRK -
==============================================================

Flight Research: Problems Encountered and What They Should Teach Us.

A number of people (including Ezra Kotcher with the Army Air Forces [AAF] at Wright Field in Ohio, John Stack at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics [NACA] in Virginia,...
21 Nov 04

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/pdf/88795main_Thompson.pdf - 1.2MB ==============================================================

http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Photo/LLRV/index.html
Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV)
Photo Collection

http://www1.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Photo/LLRV/HTML/index.html
Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV) Photo Gallery Contact Sheet

==============================================================

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LLRV
Lunar Landing Research Vehicle
>From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Lunar Landing Research Vehicle or LLRV was an Apollo Project era program to build a simulator for the Moon landings. The LLRVs, humorously referred to as flying bedsteads (see also Flying bedstead), were used by the FRC, now known as the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., to study and analyze piloting techniques needed to fly and land the Apollo Lunar Module in the moon's low gravity environment.

Success of the two LLRVs led to the building of three Lunar Landing Training Vehicles (LLTVs) used by Apollo astronauts at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, Texas, predecessor of NASA's Johnson Space Center.

Snip
==============================================================

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/news/FactSheets/FS-026-DFRC.html

FACT SHEETS
Lunar Landing Research Vehicle

The LLRVs, humorously referred to as "flying bedsteads," were created by a predecessor of NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center to study and analyze piloting techniques needed to fly and land the tiny Apollo Lunar Module in the moon's airless environment. (Dryden was known as NASA's Flight Research Center from 1959 to 1976.)

Snip
--------------------------------------------------------------
[Note: PDF version of above. - LRK -] 230 KB

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/LLRV-DFRC.pdf
Lunar Landing Research Vehicle
FS-2002-09-026-DFRC

The LLRVs, humorously referred to as “flying bedsteads,” were created by a predecessor of NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center to study and analyze piloting techniques needed to fly and land the tiny Apollo Lunar Module in the moon’s airless environment. (Dryden was known as NASA’s Flight Research Center from 1959 to 1976.)

Success of the LLRVs led to the building of three Lunar Landing Training Vehicles (LLTVs) used by Apollo astronauts at the Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston, Texas, predecessor of NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

Apollo 11 astronaut, Neil Armstrong — first human to step onto the moon’s surface — said the mission would not have been successful without the type of simulation that resulted from the LLRVs and LLTVs.

Snip
==============================================================

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/about/Organizations/Technology/Facts/TF-2004-08-DFRC.html

FACT SHEETS
Lunar Landing Research Vehicle

Contributions to the nation's early space program by NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center can be measured in several engineering disciplines, but none are as significant as the two Lunar Landing Research Vehicles (LLRV) created and flown by the Center in the 1960s.

Snip
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Note: PDF version of above. - LRK -] 555 KB

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/pdf/89228main_TF-2004-08-DFRC.pdf
Lunar Landing Research Vehicle
TF-2004-08 DFRC

Contributions to the nation's early space program by NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center can be measured in several engineering disciplines, but none are as significant as the two Lunar Landing Research Vehicles (LLRV) created and flown by the Center in the 1960s.

The spider-like LLRVs were used to develop control and landing techniques needed by Apollo astronauts to safely land lunar modules (LM) on the moon where there is no air to support a winged vehicle, and where gravity is only onesixth that of Earth.

Dryden's two LLRVs were prototypes for a pair of Lunar Landing Training ehicles (LLTVs) flown by Apollo astronauts at the Manned Spacecraft Center (later renamed the Johnson
Space Center) in Houston, Tex.

Snip
==============================================================

http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/gallery/Movie/LLRV/index.html
Lunar Landing Research Vehicle
Movie Collection

The primary focus of the NASA space program during the 1960's was on the goal of safely landing astronauts on the Moon before the end of the decade. It was a mammoth undertaking that involved all of the NASA centers. Dryden Flight Research Center made a number of contributions to the NASA space program during the 1960's.

For example, the X-15 rocket plane pioneered flight controls used in space, the Paresev studied the concept of paraglider landings for a space vehicle, and the lifting bodies explored the use of wingless spacecraft that could glide to a precise landing; but it was the tiny, Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV) that had the most direct impact on the Apollo missions to the Moon.

All of the time and expense lavished upon the Apollo lunar missions ultimately hinged upon the last few minutes before the lander touched the lunar surface. This was a daunting fact when the program began in 1961. The first landing would be an entirely new experience for any astronaut, and it had to be perfect. NASA chose three approaches for lunar landing training: (1) An electronic flight simulator, (2) an outdoor, lunar-landing-type vehicle that "flew" suspended from a large gantry and employed hydrogen-peroxide powered attitude-control and thruster rockets as well as a cable system for control, and (3) the free-flying training vehicles, which evolved from the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle.

Snip
==============================================================

http://history.nasa.gov/alsj/a17/a17-lltv.html
Apollo 17 Lunar Surface Journal
Utility of the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle

Commentary Copyright © 1995 by Eric M. Jones.

All rights reserved.
Last revised 6 April 2006

The following discussion is largely derived from my 1991 discussions with Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt.

Schmitt - "As I recall, everybody was eventually supposed to go through LLTV training, but they were barely able to qualify all of the Commanders. All of us did get helicopter training as a precursor to the LLTV."

Cernan - "The reasoning behind giving only Commanders LLTV training, as best I can remember, was a combination of time, cost, and, quite frankly, safety. All the lunar module pilots wanted to fly the LLTV, strictly from a piloting point of view. When I was a lunar module pilot, I wanted to fly it. But, because we didn't have plans to land on Apollo 10, there wasn't any point in either Tom Stafford or I training in the LLTV; and, even for the actual landing missions, quite frankly, there was no need for LMP LLTV training. It would have been nice gravy to put on a chicken fried steak if the LMPs could have flown it as well as the Commanders; but, in reality, there was no need. There were two people to train for each flight anyway: the Commander and the Back-up Commander; and that pretty much took up all the time that was available. There were also some very real safety issues. We started out with four training vehicles, I believe, and we ended up with one. Joe Algranti (a NASA test pilot) ejected out of the first one. He was heading our aircraft operation before Neil ever flew the LLTV. And then two other people had to eject. So I was the last to fly the last one. It was a very unstable vehicle."

In all, Bell Aerosystems, Buffalo, NY built five LM trainers of this type for NASA. Two were an early version called the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle ( LLRV ). Neil Armstrong was flying LLRV-1 on May 6, 1968 when it went out of control. He ejected safely and the vehicle crashed. A later version was called the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle or LLTV and three were built. Two of these were lost in crashes on December 8, 1968 (LLTV-1 piloted by Algranti) and January 29, 1971 (piloted by Stuart M. Present). Both pilots ejected safely. The LLTV was a more accurate LM simulator and Gene is correct in saying that only one (NASA vehicle 952) was available for Apollo 17 training.

Snip
==============================================================

WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

==============================================================