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Dryden contributions to Apollo 11 mission included LLRV, X-15
X-Press Editor and Dryden History Office NASA Dryden Pilot Don Mallick walked up to the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV) and knew he had never flown anything like the aircraft nicknamed the "flying bedstead." The LLRV Mallick approached contributed to development of the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) that Neil Armstrong piloted to the Moon. The LLRV also was one of two major contributions Dryden made to the Apollo 11 effort. The wealth of knowledge acquired during the X-15 research flights was the other vital research component. X-15 research gave insight into flight controls, thermal protection, and to some extent, the impacts of space on the human body. Mallick was one of the two pilots selected to fill two Center openings, especially since Armstrong left Dryden after his selection for astronaut training. Mallick became the LLRV’s most frequent flier, tallying 79 of the program’s 204 flights. A Naval aviator prior to his Dryden service, Mallick was selected for his experience with jets and helicopters. The LLRV flew somewhat like a helicopter in that it took off and landed vertically. A gimbaled jet engine lifted the LLRV to the desired altitude and throttled back to 5/6 of the Earth’s gravity to simulate the Moon’s gravity. Then a series of reaction control jets permitted a gradual descent and adjusted the attitude of the vehicle to the one the pilot wanted. The gimbal on the main jet engine kept its thrust directed perpindicular to the ground. "It was really challenging to fly. I am proud to have worked on something that supported Apollo 11. The LLRV was our most direct support. It is a nice feeling I was there for a part of that," Mallick said. That’s a sentiment shared by Gene Matranga, who was then a program manager for the lunar aircraft prototype. "It certainly gave Neil Arm-strong confidence when he got into dust at 50 feet. They trained at large attitude angles, so they were not uncomfortable. He then pressed on, relying only on his instruments," Matranga said. The former LLRV program manager referred to Neil Armstrong’s decision to manually operate the LEM to a landing when dust clouds appeared at 50 feet above the Moon’s surface and obscured his vision. The automatic landing mode may have placed the LEM in a crater or on a boulder. Bob Baron, who currently is Dryden X-38 project manager, was in the early years of his career at the time of the LLRV. He initially came to Dryden and worked with the X-15 and then became an operations engineer with the LLRV. Baron recalled a trip to Buffalo, N.Y., with head operations engineer Wayne Ottinger to see the LLRV. "It was a strange looking machine," Baron recalled. The first vehicle was shipped to Dryden in big pieces and reassembled. A second LLRV arrived in smaller pieces because of cost overruns, Baron said. "Obviously I thought it was terrific and as a young guy it was an impossible dream," Baron said of working on the project. The first LLRV was destroyed during a research flight in Houston, where Armstrong had to eject, but the second LLRV was refurbished by Home Box Office (HBO) for the 1997 filming of the series "From the Earth to the Moon." That vehicle is located at Dryden in Building 4801, where the old welding shop resided. The X-15 research program made numerous contributions to aeronautical science and technology, many of which have influenced modern aircraft and spacecraft design. Less well known, however, were the X-15’s contributions to the Apollo lunar missions. North American Aviation (later Rockwell International) served as the prime contractor for the X-15 and Apollo Command/Service Module (CSM). Designers of the Apollo spacecraft drew upon experience from the X-15 program, and even used the X-15 as a testbed for new materials. Bill Dana, a retired NASA pilot who flew the X-15, recalls testing the X-15 controls performance in zero gravity. "The development and demonstration of ballistic controls was the biggest contribution," Dana said of the X-15 impact on Apollo 11. Traditional aircraft fly by deflecting air over flight control surfaces. However, outside the atmosphere miniature reaction control jets, which are now used to position satellites, can be used to keep a spacecraft in the desired attitude. The X-15 proved these controls worked. Materials and structures technology developed for use in the X-15, especially those using titanium and Inconel X alloys, were applicable to Apollo and later spacecraft design. The discovery of localized hot spots on the X-15 led to the development of a bi-metallic "floating retainer" concept to dissipate stresses in the X-15’s windshield. This technology was later applied to the Apollo and Space Shuttle windshield designs. X-15 re-entry experience and heat transfer data were also valuable. Using their X-15 experience, Rockwell engineers designed a computerized mathematical model for aerodynamic heating. Called Hypersonic and Supersonic Thermal Evaluation, or HASTE, it was used directly in the initial Apollo design study. Lessons learned from X-15 turbulent heat transfer studies contributed to the design of the Apollo CSM. Designers found that they could build lighter weight vehicles with less thermal protection than was previously thought possible. The X-15 program produced a wealth of biomedical data that paved the way for humans to travel in space. Researchers at the Air Force Flight Test Center’s Bioastronautics Branch and NASA Flight Research Center (now NASA Dryden) made a careful study of X-15 pilots’ heart and breathing rates to determine how they were affected at various critical points during flight. Despite initial concern, it soon became apparent that the pilots’ higher heart rates were not associated with any physical problems or loss of ability to perform intricate mission-related tasks. In 1967, technicians applied samples of cryogenic insulation to the X-15’s speed brakes. Adhesive and spray-on insulation, designed for use of the Apollo Saturn V second stage, were tested. The X-15 proved an excellent testbed for these materials because it could simulate the aerodynamic heating conditions that the Saturn rocket faced, and it allowed full recovery of the equipment, calibration of the results, and repeated testing if necessary. |
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Responsible NASA Official: John Childress For questions, contact: Dryden Web Group Page Curator:WD-Team Modified: August 18, 1999 |
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