Lunar Landing Research Vehicle
The Bell Aerosystems Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV) was an Apollo Project era program to build a simulator for the Moon landings. The LLRVs, humorously referred to as "flying bedsteads", were used by the FRC, now known as the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, at Edwards Air Force Base, California, to study and analyze piloting techniques needed to fly and land the Apollo Lunar Module in the moon's low gravity environment.
The research vehicles were vertical take-off vehicles that used a single jet engine mounted on a gimbal so that it always pointed vertically. It was adjusted to cancel 5/6 of the vehicle's weight, and the vehicle used hydrogen peroxide rockets which could fairly accurately simulate the behaviour of a lunar lander.
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. Nearly all of the flying bedsteads were destroyed in crashes, but the purpose built rocket ejection seat system recovered the pilot safely in all cases.
The final phase of every Apollo landing was manually piloted by the mission commander. Because of navigational problems, Neil Armstrong, Apollo 11 commander, said his mission would not have been successful without extensive training on the LLRVs and LLTVs.
Read more about Lunar Landing Research Vehicle: Development, Lunar Sim Mode, Specifications (LLRV), Control System
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