Neil Armstrong
5 August 1930 – 25 August 2012
After a long hiatus, we’re back, spurred on in part by
the death on Saturday of a legendary astronaut due to complications following
cardiovascular surgery earlier in the month.
While hopefully most of today’s aviation enthusiasts or space aficionados
may be familiar with the name, those of us who remember that day – 20 July 1969
when a human being set foot on a surface other than the Earth’s for the first
time – will always link Neil Armstrong with what remains, arguably, humankind’s
greatest technical achievement.
Hooked on airplanes and flying from an early age, he
already had his private pilot’s licence and was studying aeronautical
engineering at Purdue University when he was called for US Navy flight training
in 1949. As a Naval Aviator, he was assigned
to fly Grumman F9F Panther fighters with VF-51 and went to war in the skies
above Korea. He survived 78 aircraft
carrier-based combat missions – some barely – and returned home in early 1952. Joining NACA, the National Advisory
Committee for Aeronautics which paved the way for today’s NASA, he became a
test pilot and was, like all of those fortunate enough to be involved in that
elite activity, at the leading edge of advances in aerospace technologies
during the golden age of test flying.
Born at a time when small, monoplane racers and
high-performance military biplane fighters captured the public’s imagination, he
ended up in the space business. He commanded the Gemini VIII mission which
launched aboard a Titan rocket on 16 March 1966 and ran into dangerous, uncontrolled
rolling problems while in orbit. Solving that issue and returning to an
emergency ‘splash down’, he was later chosen to lead the Apollo 11 team to the
Moon. The astronauts – Neil Armstrong,
Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin and the oft forgotten but ever-essential Michael Collins – launched
atop a Saturn V rocket on 16 July 1969.
With Collins in obit aboard Columbia,
Armstrong and Aldrin in Eagle – the lunar
module – headed towards a landing on the Moon which was certainly not without
its share of problems. The rest, as they
say, is history.
Following Apollo 11, he remained with NASA for a few
years. Born in Wapakoneta, Ohio, he returned
to that state to become a Professor of Aeronautical Engineering at the
University of Cincinnati. Over the years
he kept a relatively low profile but did, on occasion, appear for public speaking
engagements. Although apparently not bombastic
by nature, a contributing factor in remaining out of the public spotlight must surely
have been the continual harassment since the 1970s by folks in the conspiracy theory community.
Neil Armstrong was 82 years old.
(above) For those interested in exploring Apollo 11 history in
person, there are two places that should not be missed. This banner, portraying the Apollo 11
insignia design, hangs at the Apollo / Saturn V Center at Kennedy Space Center,
Florida. The immense building, open to
the public, houses items of interest including all Apollo mission insignia, a
lunar module and an actual Saturn V rocket.
(above) As the official repository for NASA-related historical
items, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum on the Mall in Washington,
DC displays many items of significance to space flight. Among the Apollo artifacts displayed is this
lunar module. LM-2 was the second one
built but in the end was not required for a test flight. It was, instead, used for ground training by
NASA. As an aside, if you are in the
area and can make the short trip, the Smithsonian’s Udvar-Hazy Center at
Washington-Dulles International Airport is a must-see air museum.
For those interested in further reading, here are two
links of interest.
