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luke strawwalker
05-18-2011, 05:50 PM
Here's an interesting study from 1966 summing up the Little Joe II Apollo LES test program, with some drawings, lots of pics, mission summaries, and other interesting tidbits of information. One of the more interesting proposals was for LEM engine tests launching prototype LEMs on Little Joe II's... these tests were dropped in favor of launching them on Saturn IB (actually the Apollo I Saturn IB that Grissom, White, and Chaffee were scheduled to launch on was refitted to launch a prototype LEM for this mission.) There's a dimensioned pic of the wind tunnel test model for the LEM LJII in the report...

Hope you guys into LJII enjoy this one...

Later! OL JR

luke strawwalker
05-18-2011, 05:52 PM
Pic one is the basic fixed-fin LJII...


Pic two is a graphic of the flight path of the QTV (test launch) of the first LJII at WSMR...


Pic three is the first LJII Apollo spacecraft test flight...


Pic four is a series of tracking camera pics of the BP-12 LJII A-001 flight...


Pic five is a flight events graphic of this flight...


More to come... OL JR

luke strawwalker
05-18-2011, 05:53 PM
Pic one is the A-002 mission vehicle, with movable fins...


Pic two is the flight sequence of A-002...


Pic three is the A-003 mission vehicle...


Pic four is the A-003 mission events...


Pic five is the A-004 mission vehicle...


More coming! OL JR

luke strawwalker
05-18-2011, 05:54 PM
Pic one is the A-004 mission events...


Pic two is the scale model used in the wind tunnel tests of the LJII design...


Pic three is the scale model used in wind tunnel tests of the LJII designed to loft the LEM to 200,000 feet for LEM engine tests... this one never flew but could be 'reverse engineered' by scaling the wind tunnel model...


Pic four is a exploded view of the structures of the fixed fin LJII...


Pic five is an exploded view of the structures of the movable fin LJII...


More coming! OL JR

luke strawwalker
05-18-2011, 05:56 PM
Pic one is a graphic of the different motor arrangements in the LJII airframe for various missions... some were all groundlit, some used a combination of groundlit motors and airlit motors...


Pic two is the large Algol motor details used in LJII...


Pic three is the smaller Recruit motor details used in LJII...


Pic four is the attitude control system of the LJII...


Pic five is some assembly pics of the LJII...


More coming! OL JR

luke strawwalker
05-18-2011, 05:57 PM
Pic one is the forebody of the LJII arriving at the main gate at WSMR...


Pic two is the forebody being unloaded at WSMR...


Pic three is the forebody/afterbody mating test...


Pic four is a fin being unloaded and the Algol motor with some wiring installed...


Pic five is the ignitor installation in the fwd end of the Algol motor...


More to come... OL JR

luke strawwalker
05-18-2011, 05:59 PM
Pic one is how to assemble a LJII on the pad...


Pic two is how to install the Algol motors in your LJII...


Pic three is how to install the Recruit motors in your LJII...


Pic four is installing the forebody on the LJII...


Pic five is installing the fins on the LJII...


More coming! OL JR

luke strawwalker
05-18-2011, 06:00 PM
Pic one is what happens when you pack the parachute too tightly in your Little Joe II... LOL Look for the new "Lawn Darts- ULTIMATE EDITION!"


Pic two is what happens after pranging your LJII-- gonna need a boatload of super glue!!!!


Hope you enjoyed it! OL JR

mkrobel
05-18-2011, 08:05 PM
While one can go to the NTRS site and find the documents, I think you should post the link to the studies cited in your initial messages.

Earl
05-18-2011, 08:41 PM
This is a decent size download file from the NTIS site (as I recall from seeing it there several years back), but is worth the download time if you are a LJII fan. It's a very good technical summary of the entire LJII program. I'd love to get my hands on an original copy of the report just for the photos.

I wonder if the White Sands Public Affairs/History Office (if they have one) has access or has available purchasable copies of some of those photos (would need to probably get the official NASA photo number)? NASA-JSC may have some of those photos/negs in their records/archive section.

Some great assembly photos out at the pad exist of those vehicles (including motor and ignitor installation shots, etc.) and are nicely detailed ones, at that.

Thanks for the post!

Earl

luke strawwalker
05-19-2011, 04:01 PM
While one can go to the NTRS site and find the documents, I think you should post the link to the studies cited in your initial messages.

I would, but I don't have the links saved-- I downloaded the studies to my hard drive, and basically I'm too lazy to go try and find them on the NTRS site...

I snip all the remotely relevant pics and include them in these summaries, along with virtually all the text from the study (which I retype and summarize) which could be of primary interest to model rocketeers wanting to learn a brief history of these proposals or vehicles and possibly build their own. My summaries are by no means a complete summary of the vehicle, proposal, history, or details of the study itself-- if one wants to go THAT in-depth they should certainly look the original study up on NTRS or elsewhere on the web and read it word for word themselves...

I don't see the need to summarize hundreds of pages of minutia on the finer points of antenna pointing and plasma exhaust plume blocking of telemetry signals and other such fascinating but ultimately esoteric and unnecessary (for modelling purposes) information... or the reams of charts and graphs and graphics related to the most intricate details of vehicle construction (such as antenna pointing arrangements and internal details) which again have no bearing on modelling the subject at the scales we're dealing with (for flying models). If I were going to do that, I'd just link to the report itself and let the interested individuals sift through it all, or cut/paste the whole thing... LOL:)

I always list the relevant numbers from the report at the heading of the summary so if someone wants to look it up they can search for it... besides, I find the NTRS site rather difficult to navigate and find anything on... I'd much prefer a decent bibliography or contents page rather than the 'concept clouds' they use which seem to defy my efforts to find anything... :D

Later! OL JR :)

luke strawwalker
05-19-2011, 04:02 PM
This is a decent size download file from the NTIS site (as I recall from seeing it there several years back), but is worth the download time if you are a LJII fan. It's a very good technical summary of the entire LJII program. I'd love to get my hands on an original copy of the report just for the photos.

I wonder if the White Sands Public Affairs/History Office (if they have one) has access or has available purchasable copies of some of those photos (would need to probably get the official NASA photo number)? NASA-JSC may have some of those photos/negs in their records/archive section.

Some great assembly photos out at the pad exist of those vehicles (including motor and ignitor installation shots, etc.) and are nicely detailed ones, at that.

Thanks for the post!

Earl

Yer welcome! OL JR :)