page_title: Lunar Landing Research Vehicle
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Lunar Landing Research Vehicle / History
caption_attribution_description: English: This 1964 NASA Flight Reserch Center photograph shows the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV) Number 1 in flight at the South Base of Edwards Air Force Base. When Apollo planning was underway in 1960, NASA was looking for a simulator to profile the descent to the moon's surface. Three concepts emerged: an electronic simulator, a tethered device, and the ambitious Dryden contribution, a free-flying vehicle. All three became serious projects, but eventually the NASA Flight Research Center's (FRC) Landing Research Vehicle became the most important.
context_page_description: The Bell Aerosystems Lunar Landing Research Vehicle was a Project Apollo era program to build a simulator for the Moon landings. The LLRVs were used by the FRC, now known as the NASA Armstrong 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, an improved version of the LLRV, for use by Apollo astronauts at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, Texas, predecessor of NASA's Johnson Space Center. One LLRV and two LLTVs were destroyed in crashes, but the 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.
context_section_description: Built of aluminum alloy trusses, the LLRVs were powered by a General Electric CF700-2V turbofan engine with a thrust of 4,200 lbf (19 kN), mounted vertically in a gimbal. The engine lifted the vehicle to the test altitude and was then throttled back to support five-sixths of the vehicle's weight, simulating the reduced gravity of the Moon. Two hydrogen peroxide lift rockets with thrust that could be varied from 100 to 500 lbf (440 to 2,200 N) handled the vehicle's rate of descent and horizontal movement. Sixteen smaller hydrogen peroxide thrusters, mounted in pairs, gave the pilot control in pitch, yaw and roll.
  The pilot had an ejection seat. On activation, it propelled the pilot upward from the vehicle with an acceleration of roughly 14 times the force of gravity for about a half second.  From the ground, it was sufficient to propel the seat and pilot to an altitude of about 250 feet (80 m) where the pilot's parachute could be automatically and successfully deployed. Manufactured by Weber Aircraft LLC, it was one of the first zero-zero ejection seats, capable of saving the operator even if the aircraft was stationary on the ground, a necessity given the LLRV's low and slow flight envelope.
  After conceptual planning and meetings with engineers from Bell Aerosystems, Buffalo, New York, 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 February 1, 1963, for delivery of the first of two vehicles for flight studies at the FRC within 14 months.
  LLRV#1 was shipped from Bell to FRC in April.  LLRV#2 was also shipped at the same time, but in parts.  Because of a potential cost overrun, the FRC Director, Paul Bickle, decided to have it assembled and tested at FRC.  The emphasis then was on LLRV#1.  It was first readied for flight on a tilt table constructed at FRC to evaluate its engine operation without actually flying it.  The scene then shifted to the old South Base area of Edwards.
  The first three flights of #1 were made on October 30, 1964 by FRC's senior research test pilot, Joe Walker. He continued to pilot a number of flights through December 1964, after which flights were shared with Don Mallick, also a FRC research pilot, and Jack Kleuver, the Army's senior helicopter test pilot.  Familiarization flights were also made by NASA Manned Spacecraft Center (later Johnson Space Center) pilots Joseph Algranti and H.E. Ream.
  Modifications were later made to the cockpits of both LLRVs to better simulate the actual Lunar Module.  These included the addition of the LM's three-axis hand controller and throttle.  A Styrofoam cockpit enclosure was also added to simulate the pilot's restricted view in the LM.
  The final LLRV flight at FRC took place on November 30, 1966.  In December 1966, vehicle #1 was shipped to Houston, followed by #2 in January 1967.  During the preceding two years, a total of 198 flights of LLRV#1 and six flights of LLRV#2 had been flown without a serious accident.
  The first LLRV flight by Neil Armstrong was made in vehicle #1 on March 27, 1967 from its base at a corner of Ellington Air Force Base, the headquarters for Johnson Space Center's aircraft operations.  Joe Algranti, chief of JSC's Aircraft Operations Division, and test pilot H.E. Ream also made flights that month.  Both observed, as did Armstrong and the other astronauts, that if a serious control problem developed, the pilot had little choice but to eject, since the vehicle only operated to a maximum altitude of 500 feet (200 m).
  On May 6, 1968, Armstrong was forced to use LLRV #1's ejection seat from about 200 feet (60 m) altitude after a control problem, and had about four seconds on his full parachute before landing on the ground unhurt. The accident investigation board found that the fuel for the vehicle's attitude control thrusters had run out and 
caption: An LLRV at Edwards AFB is tested before acceptance by NASA
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