On October 30, 1964, NASA’s Lunar Landing Research Vehicle, or LLRV, took to the skies for the first time.
The LLRV was a bizarre, four-legged flying contraption commonly known as the “Flying Bedstead.” NASA used it to simulate moon landings and liftoffs on Earth to prepare for Apollo 11, the first crewed lunar landing.
Building Apollo: Photos from Moonshot History
Related Stories
The first person to give it a whirl was the X-15 pilot Joe Walker. During this test flight, he reached an altitude of about 10 feet, and he hovered there for about a minute. He did this two more times that same day. In all, he completed more than 30 test flights with the LLRV.
These test flights took place at what was then NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. That facility has since been renamed the Armstrong Flight Research Center after Neil Armstrong, who also piloted — and famously crashed — the “Flying Bedstead” before he went to the moon.
On This Day in Space Archive!
[embedded content]
Still not enough space? Don’t forget to check out our Space Image of the Day, and on the weekends our Best Space Photos and Top Space News Stories of the week.
Follow us @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
