Calling all Conspiracy Theorists

Greenday · Post by **Greenday** » Fri Sep 05, 2003 1:15 am

So if the training program for land was useless how did they train to land as i'm sure you don't just go and get it perfect first time

Mr_AWOL · Post by **Mr_AWOL** » Fri Sep 05, 2003 1:15 am

Thats a small debate. Taking part in a MASS DEBATE makes ya blind - thats what my teacher said

Greenday · Post by **Greenday** » Fri Sep 05, 2003 1:17 am

Thats a small debate. Taking part in a MASS DEBATE makes ya blind - thats what my teacher said

CB · Post by CB » Fri Sep 05, 2003 7:28 am

So if the training program for land was useless how did they train to land as i'm sure you don't just go and get it perfect first time

It wasn't useless - on the contrary - the "Flying Bedstead" was in fact an extremely effective training simulator, just not very popular amongst the pilots. Remember that jet flight was still in its infancy. These guys were perhaps the most fearless pilots ever seen. Men like Scott Crossfield and Chuck Yeager (who were not in the astronaut program) plus guys like Grissom, Glenn, Armstrong, Young and Shepherd were regularly laying their lives on the line testing "untried" airplanes, 'pushing the envelope' as its known. The LLRV was just unlike anything these guys had flown before. I imagine it was probably the worlds first VTOL machine, and hence a forefunner to the Harrier Jumpjet - now have you seen any early footage of that being tested!!!

Greenday · Post by **Greenday** » Fri Sep 05, 2003 10:13 am

Still doesn't explain the perfect landing on the moon

:

charlieannear · Post by **charlieannear** » Fri Sep 05, 2003 3:11 pm

Corrrr, one innocent post about power cuts it turning into a MASS DEBATE!?!

Yeah, I created a monster!

Still it's better reading than one of CB and Erms tiffs...

charlieannear · Post by **charlieannear** » Fri Sep 05, 2003 3:14 pm

So if the training program for land was useless how did they train to land as i'm sure you don't just go and get it perfect first time
It wasn't useless - on the contrary - the "Flying Bedstead" was in fact an extremely effective training simulator, just not very popular amongst the pilots. Remember that jet flight was still in its infancy. These guys were perhaps the most fearless pilots ever seen. Men like Scott Crossfield and Chuck Yeager (who were not in the astronaut program) plus guys like Grissom, Glenn, Armstrong, Young and Shepherd were regularly laying their lives on the line testing "untried" airplanes, 'pushing the envelope' as its known. The LLRV was just unlike anything these guys had flown before. I imagine it was probably the worlds first VTOL machine, and hence a forefunner to the Harrier Jumpjet - now have you seen any early footage of that being tested!!!

Yanks still can't fly Harriers. They have crashed more than the RAF have ever owned. :rolleyes:
Which backs up CB's argument. Just cos a yank crashed a flying bedstead, doesn't mean the flying bedstead was no good.

Greenday · Post by **Greenday** » Fri Sep 05, 2003 3:39 pm

Actually it backs on my point that a perfect landing and yank don't normally appear in the same sentence

charlieannear · Post by **charlieannear** » Fri Sep 05, 2003 3:43 pm

True, but even yanks got the hang of flying harriers eventually...

Greenday · Post by **Greenday** » Fri Sep 05, 2003 5:15 pm

But not straight away though

CB · Post by CB » Fri Sep 05, 2003 11:35 pm

Apollo XI wasn't a perfect landing. It was a very lucky landing. Armstrong and Aldrin were down to their last few seconds of fuel hunting for a debris free landing site, plus the 1201 and 1202 program alarms going off (as the computer overloaded itself) were a major distraction. But, as possibly the most qualified test pilot in the program, Armstrong, who had thousands of hours flight time in experimental airplanes, managed to land it ok. And they learnt from his experiences for the future lunar landings. Trial and error.
The Apollo program had its fair share of mishaps and disasters (the Apollo 1 fire in which Grissom, Chafee and White lost their lives, while on a routine pressure testing of the capsule...the Apollo 13 aborted moon landing) just so happened that none of these incidents occurred whilst on the moon....

charlieannear · Post by **charlieannear** » Wed Sep 24, 2003 11:17 am

The Right Stuff is an excellent film, I have it on DVD.

Big Power Cuts in Denmark and Sweden yesterday.
The End Is Nigh, I tell you....

CB · Post by CB » Wed Sep 24, 2003 3:30 pm

The Right Stuff is an excellent film (and a fantastic book too - by Tom Wolfe)
Its also fairly accurate, except for all the hype on Chuck Yeager obviously. I believe it was on TV recently? Ed Harris plays John Glenn (he also played Eugene F Kranz who was the assistant flight director on both the Mercury and Gemini programs before becoming flight director for Apollo in the Tom Hanks film 'Apollo 13')
Right, I'm even boring myself now...