The Bell Aerosystems Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV) was an Apollo Project era program to build a simulator for the Moon landings. The LLRVs, humorously referred to as "flying bedsteads", were used by the FRC, now known as the NASA Dryden 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.
Success of the ...
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The Bell Aerosystems Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV) was an Apollo Project era program to build a simulator for the Moon landings. The LLRVs, humorously referred to as "flying bedsteads", were used by the FRC, now known as the NASA Dryden 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.
Success of the two LLRVs led to the building of three Lunar Landing Training Vehicles (LLTVs) used by Apollo astronauts at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, Texas, predecessor of NASA's Johnson Space Center.
The final phase of every Apollo landing was manually piloted by the mission commander. Because of navigational problems, Neil Armstrong, Apollo 11 commander, said his mission would not have been successful without extensive training on the LLRVs and LLTVs.
Built of aluminum alloy trusses, the vehicles were powered by a General Electric CF700-2V...
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