Gus Grissom & Milton Thompson en een Parasev 1-A
ik geloof dat de strekking van het verhaal ja is...
One of the concepts studied in the early 1960s to return spacecraft to earth was the Rogallo Wing or better known as the Parasev (Paraglider Rescue Vehicle) which was a delta wing design patented by Frances Rogallo, a NASA engineer, (and his wife Gertrude). They used to fly various designs of kites near their home in Hampton, VA until they came up with their final design.
The Parasev was used to gain in-flight experience and was an open framework fabricated of welded steel tubing into a space frame resembling a tricycle on three wheels with a rudimentary tripod mast and perched on top of the mast was a Rogallo-type parawing. Bob flew the unpowered Parasev 1-A and sat on the open frame strapped in the seat with no enclosure. He controlled the descent rate by tilting the wing from side to side with a control stick that came from overhead.
Before testing the Parasev he was sent to California to learn to fly conventional gliders. Most of his training was in the mountains of Tehachapi at the Holiday Soaring School flying Schweizer gliders. His first flight in the NASA Parasev was November 7, 1962 at Edwards AFB, CA and he was first towed by auto for taxi run, nose wheel lift off and some free flight. Later he was towed by aircraft. His first airborne flight was on November 15 and he was towed to 2,000 feet by Fred Harris flying a Stearman before being cut loose. On later flights he was towed to 4,500 feet and turned loose to free fly unpowered back to the runway. Bob had a total of 15 flights in the Parasev 1-A and he, along with other Parasev pilots, decided it was too physically demanding to expect the astronauts to be able to return to earth in this manner after having been in a weightless state for a period of time. For many years after, each time he would meet Francis Rogallo, Frank would say “Remember Bob, I flew it first.”