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[b]Space Cover 700: LLRV and LLTV[/b] Above is a cover postmarked at Edwards, CA (same as Edwards AFB) on December 13. 1965, a day that Army helicopter pilot Emil E "Jack" Kleuver's flew the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV). It carries one of Bob Rank's Velvet cachets depicting the LLRV. This is the only LLRV cover that Rank made (that I know of – if anyone knows differently, please post!). The cachet doesn't show it well, but the LLRV looked nothing like any kind of spaceship – a metal tube framework with four legs, a jet engine pointing downward, rocket engines and tanks dotted throughout, and an open cockpit on the side, as shown below. In fact, NASA's Monograph in Aerospace History #36, NASA SP-2004-4535, titled the LLRV as "Unconventional, Contrary, and Ugly". Two LLRV's were built by Bell Aircraft to test techniques for the Apollo astronauts to land on the Moon. On a typical flight the jet engine would boost the LLRV up to about 200 feet altitude over Edwards, then throttle back to a thrust of 5/6 the weight of the vehicle in order to simulate lunar gravity. Then the pilot would fly a landing approach much like the (then) future Apollo Lunar Module would over the Moon using the rocket engines. NASA FRC pilots Joe Walker, Don Mallick, Army helicopter pilot Kleuver, and NASA MSC "instructor pilots" Joe Algranti and Bud Ream flew 204 of these missions from October 30, 1964, to January 13, 1967 at Edwards. Covers were produced for many (but not all) of these flights, and most were more "plain Jane" than the above cover, with a simple rubber-stamped cachet (probably from the local Boy Scout troop). This typical one is from Walker's March 2, 1965 flight: After these flights at Edwards, LLRV #1 was transferred to Ellington AFB in Houston to help train the Apollo astronauts. Additionally, three more vehicles, nearly identical to the LLRV's, designated Lunar Landing Training Vehicles (LLTV's) were procured for Apollo training. This squad of four vehicles made around 590 flights at Ellington. But remember the word "contrary" above? Even though the LLRV's and LLTV's were good training tools, an errant gust of wind or a small problem with the vehicle could create a bad day. Three crashes occurred; Neil Armstrong in LLRV #1 on May 6, 1968; Joe Algranti in LLTV #1 on December 8, 1968; and MSC pilot Stu Present in LLTV #2 on January 31, 1971. All three pilots successfully ejected before crashing but, because of the hazards involved with the LLRV's and LLTV's, astronaut training with these vehicles was generally reserved for Apollo commanders and backup commanders. So, the astronauts who actually flew these vehicles in training were limited to: Borman and Anders (prior to the crashes and being assigned to a non-LM flight), Armstrong, Conrad, Lovell, Shepard, Scott, Young, Cernan, Gordon (as Apollo 15 backup commander), and Haise (as Apollo 16 backup commander). I haven't seen any covers postmarked for the Houston LLRV and LLTV flights. If any of you have one, please post 'em!
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