Had never seen this one before. Would not have been an option on the moon. Test pilots in back in those days (50's and 60's) had big ones. Video: The Crash that Could Have Killed Neil Armstrong | Flying Magazine
They show this occasionally on TV. They were testing and experimental version of the lander that was unstable.
The original engine (Rocketdyne, I believer) was unstable at low throttle settings. TRW's pintle design saved the day and could be throttled to 10%, pretty amazing for a rocket engine.
He was pretty good in tough situations: Gemini 8 Boeing Frontiers Online X-15 Flight 51: To the edge of space and to the edge of Los Angeles
The voice recording in the lunar lander is what gets me. His and Aldrins relative pitch and reactions during the extended burn time. They spent a lot of time finding a suitable spot to park that thing and one of them was as calm as could be. He is one guy I am very sorry I never got to meet. I still remember standing in front of my house looking at the moon that night.
I'll say I do give Buzz a lot of credit though. In 2009 at some Star Trek convention or something some jerk moon landing conspiracy theory wack job was there calling Buzz a phony and the whole moon program a fake and Buzz at 79 years old gave the guy a nice right hook in the chops. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wcrkxOgzhU]Buzz Aldrin Punch - YouTube[/ame] I'd shake his hand and buy him a beer for that. Forget the whole moon landing thing.
Brian, Neil studied what happened to Charles Lindbergh. Older article before he passed, but good insight, and they actually corresponded. Original Moonwalker: How Neil Armstrong kept his feet on the ground despite becoming the most famous man on Earth - Science - News - The Independent
