Naval Aviators

In article ,
"Robert M. Gary" wrote:

Today, scientist look back at the moon landings and are still in shock
that no one ever died. Back then no one really realized the extent to
which they got lucky many times on the Apollo missions. During
practice with the LM teethered the pilots often would lose control. In
addition, the assent rocket on the LM only worked 6 out of 10 times.

What four times did it fail?

--
Bob Noel
(goodness, please trim replies!!!)

On Jan 24, 7:15*pm, Bob Noel
wrote:
In article ,
*"Robert M. Gary" wrote:

Today, scientist look back at the moon landings and are still in shock
that no one ever died. Back then no one really realized the extent to
which they got lucky many times on the Apollo missions. During
practice with the LM teethered the pilots often would lose control. In
addition, the assent rocket on the LM only worked 6 out of 10 times.

What four times did it fail?

During engine testing.


-Robert

In article ,
"Robert M. Gary" wrote:

On Jan 24, 7:15*pm, Bob Noel
wrote:
In article
,
*"Robert M. Gary" wrote:

Today, scientist look back at the moon landings and are still in shock
that no one ever died. Back then no one really realized the extent to
which they got lucky many times on the Apollo missions. During
practice with the LM teethered the pilots often would lose control. In
addition, the assent rocket on the LM only worked 6 out of 10 times.

What four times did it fail?

During engine testing.

Before or after the engine was completed? I doubt any engine actually mounted
to a LM failed. And for sure and for certain, none failed in flight.

--
Bob Noel
(goodness, please trim replies!!!)

On Jan 25, 4:24*pm, Bob Noel
wrote:
In article ,
*"Robert M. Gary" wrote:

On Jan 24, 7:15*pm, Bob Noel
wrote:
In article
,
*"Robert M. Gary" wrote:

Today, scientist look back at the moon landings and are still in shock
that no one ever died. Back then no one really realized the extent to
which they got lucky many times on the Apollo missions. During
practice with the LM teethered the pilots often would lose control. In
addition, the assent rocket on the LM only worked 6 out of 10 times.

What four times did it fail?

During engine testing.

Before or after the engine was completed? * I doubt any engine actually mounted
to a LM failed. *And for sure and for certain, none failed in flight.

After the engine was "completed", not mounted to an LM, the testing
was done on a stand, certainly not in flight (thankfully), although at
least one test vehicle was lost when the attitude control failed
(pilot ejected safely).

We know that Armstrong almost did not make it back, not because the
ascent rocket didn't work but because the breaker to fire it broke
off. Luckily U.S. gov't pens have lots of metal and fit into the hole
of a broken breaker. The first lunar ascention was accomplished by
jamming a pen into a broken off breaker head.

-Robert

On Jan 23, 10:33*pm, terry wrote:

Is there really anything in common with flying an airplane and an LM?
Terry
PPL ( and aspiring astronaut)


We might ask our resident sim guy. Apparently MSFS has an LM module.

-Robret

ISTR reading somewhere there was an Air Force policy that led to fewer
applicants. It may have been (just speculating here) that the Air Force
wanted
to keep the best candidates to fly the fleet of spacecraft it intended to
acquire.

I don't remember where I read it, but that's true. The Air Force was
intending to field a fleet of military space craft, and none other than
Chuck Yeager was a key member of the team developing the pilots for this
future fleet.

They flew modified F-104 Starfighters fitted with rockets and thrusters (for
steering in a near vacuum) to the very edge of space.

The Air Force pilots in that program looked down their collective noses at
the NASA space program as being just "spam in a can", with no role for them
or their training. In many ways, they were right.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On Jan 24, 1:33*am, terry wrote:

If the commanders flew the LMs why was the second guy always called
the LM pilot?
I am sure there has been plenty of civilian pilots in the shuttle
program but not as pilots.

Harrison Schmitt ( Apollo 17 Lunar module pilot) was a civillian but
to what extent did he help fly the LM?

The guy in the right-hand seat was called the "Lunar Module Pilot" but
in fact he had very little to do with the hands-on flying of the Lunar
Module. The mission commander was the guy with his hands actually on
the controllers and his eye on the COAS sight, steering the LM down.
The LMP's duties were more like a flight engineer's- they consisted
mostly of making sure that the onboard computer was correctly set up,
calling out guidance information to the pilot during descent, and
dealing with any alarms that cropped up. (_Chariots for Apollo_ notes
that the LMP's original title was "Engineer-Scientist", which is
probably closer to accurate.)

-JTD