NASA 

National Aeronautics and 

Facts

Space Administration 

Dryden Flight Research Center 

P.O. Box 273

Edwards, California 93523 

Voice 661-276-3449 

FAX 661-276-3566 

pao@dfrc.nasa.gov FS-2002-09-026-DFRC 

Lunar Landing Research Vehicle

“The LLRV” “The LLRV”

 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. 

Background

 When Apollo planning was underway in 1960, NASA 

was looking for a simulator to profile the descent to the 

moon’s surface. Three concepts were developed: an 

electronic simulator, a tethered device, and the ambitious 

Flight Research Center (FRC) contribution, a free-flying 

vehicle. All three became serious projects, but eventually 

the FRC’s LLRV became the most significant one. 

Hubert Drake is credited with originating the idea, while 

Donald Bellman and Gene Matranga were senior engineers on the project, with Bellman the project manager.

 After conceptual planning and meetings with engineers from Bell Aerosystems, Buffalo, N.Y., a company 

with experience in vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) 

aircraft, NASA issued Bell a $50,000 study contract in 

December 1961. Bell had independently conceived a 

similar, free-flying simulator, and out of this study came 

the NASA Headquarters’ endorsement of the LLRV 

concept, resulting in a $3.6 million production contract 

awarded to Bell on Feb. 1, 1963, for delivery of the first 

of two vehicles for flight studies at the FRC within 14 

months.

 Built of aluminum alloy trusses and shaped like a 

giant four-legged bedstead, the vehicle was to simulate a 

lunar landing profile. To do this, the LLRV had a 

General Electric CF-700-2V turbofan engine mounted 

vertically in a gimbal, with 4,200 pounds of thrust. The 

engine got the vehicle up to the test altitude and was then 

throttled back to support five-sixths of the vehicle’s 

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weight, simulating the reduced gravity of the moon. Two 

hydrogen peroxide lift rockets with thrust that could be 

varied from 100 to 500 pounds handled the LLRV’s rate 

of descent and horizontal movement. Sixteen smaller 

hydrogen peroxide rockets, mounted in pairs, gave the 

pilot control in pitch, yaw and roll. As safety backups on 

the LLRV, six 500-pound rockets could take over the lift 

function and stabilize the craft for a moment if the main 

jet engine failed. The pilot had a zero-zero ejection seat 

that would then lift him away to safety. 

Joe Walker in Lunar Landing Research Vehicle. NASA photo 

ECN-453 

Flight Operations

 The two LLRVs were shipped from Bell to the FRC 

in April 1964, with program emphasis on vehicle No. 1. 

It was first readied for captured flight on a tilt table 

constructed at the FRC to test the engines without actually flying. The scene then shifted to the old South Base 

area of Edwards. On the day of the first flight, Oct. 30, 

1964, research pilot Joe Walker flew it three times for a 

total of just under 60 seconds to a peak altitude of ten feet 

(3 m). Later flights were shared between Walker; another Dryden pilot, Don Mallick; the Army’s Jack 

Kleuver; and NASA Manned Spacecraft Center pilots 

Joseph Algranti and H.E. “Bud” Ream.

 NASA had accumulated enough data from the LLRV 

flight program at the FRC by mid-1966 to give Bell a 

contract to deliver three LLTVs at a cost of $2.5 million 

each. 

Lunar Landing Research Vehicle in flight. NASA photo EC64 506 

In December 1966 vehicle No. 1 was shipped to 

Houston, followed by No. 2 in January 1967, within 

weeks of its first flight. Modifications already made 

to No. 2 had given the pilot a three-axis side control 

stick and a more restrictive cockpit view, both features of the real Lunar Module that would later be 

flown by the astronauts down to the moon’s surface.

 When the LLRVs arrived at Houston, where 

research pilots would learn how to become LLTV 

instructor pilots, No. 2 had been flown just 7 times 

while No. 1, the veteran, had a total of 198 flights. In 

December 1967, the first of the LLTVs joined the 

FRC’s LLRVs to eventually make up the five-vehicle 

training and simulator fleet.

 Three of the five vehicles were later destroyed in 

crashes at Houston—LLRV No. 1 in May 1968 and 

two LLTVs, in December 1968 and January 1971.

 The two accidents in 1968, before the first lunar 

landing, did not deter Apollo program managers who 

enthusiastically relied on the vehicles for simulation 

and training.

 Donald “Deke” Slayton, then NASA’s astronaut 

chief, said there was no other way to simulate a moon 

landing except by flying the LLTV.

 LLRV No. 2 was eventually returned to Dryden, 

where it is on display as a silent artifact of the 

Center’s contribution to the Apollo program. 

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