T O P I C R E V I E W |
heng44 | NASA test pilot Neil Armstrong suiting up before his first X-15 flight (1-18-31) on November 30, 1960. |
Starfighter1 | Great photo. Never saw that one before. Does anyone know if the boots were connected to the pressure suit somehow? |
Philip | Interesting to see the knife holder on the inside left leg... something still present in today's flight coveralls. |
capoetc | The knife includes a parachute line cutter, which is extremely important if you get a line fouled in the parachute and need to get it cut loose. The line cutter is a hooked blade that is left in the open position when the knife is inserted into the pocket (there is also a blade that is left folded). Most pilots attach a cord to the loop on the end of the knife which is then attached to a grommet on the pocket so that if you fumble the knife taking it out of the pocket while hanging under a parachute the knife will not be lost. |
Joel Katzowitz | On a less technical note my 4 year old granddaughter asked me if the photo was of Cinderella trying on the glass slipper. |
heng44 | quote: Originally posted by Starfighter1: Does anyone know if the boots were connected to the pressure suit somehow?
I don't think so. The suit appears to have "socks" that could be attached with a zipper and the shoes were worn over those. |
Jonnyed | Zipper socks... that's brilliant. Perhaps we could apply that broadly across the clothing industry? Socks that don't slide down. |
DG27 | Some of the X-15 boots actually did attach to the suit leg with zippers. As mentioned previously the boot was worn over the pressure sock that was an integral part of the suit. Both the MC-2 suits and the following early versions of the A/P22S-2 style X-15 suits had zippers that ran around the top of the boot to attach it to the restraint layer of the suit leg. The leg of the silver outer cover also zipped to the restraint layer about an inch above the boot zipper. However, later versions of the A/P22S-2 style X-15 suit used boots without zippers around the top. Armstrong wore the MC-2 style suit on his first two X-15 flights. The photo shows him suiting up in the early version of the A/P22S-2 style X-15 suit, so I believe the photo was for a later flight since only the MC-2 suits were available at the time of his first flight. In high resolution versions of this photo you can see the zipper that runs around the top of the boot. The photo also shows the zipper on the end of the silver cover layer which has not yet been zipped to the leg restraint layer. A great photo from the golden age of flight test. I love seeing these photos. Thanks for posting. |
Wehaveliftoff | I never tire of seeing early Neil Armstrong photos. Thanks. |
heng44 | quote: Originally posted by DG27: A great photo from the golden age of flight test. I love seeing these photos. Thanks for posting.
...and thank you for the info. |
music_space | quote: Originally posted by Joel Katzowitz: On a less technical note my 4 year old granddaughter asked me if the photo was of Cinderella trying on the glass slipper.
My guess is that, in her mind and in the thoughts she pondered before asking, the issue was as technical as they come. |