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"El Kabong" Gemini parasail landing tests, 1965



 
 
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  #11  
Old July 24th 07, 07:10 AM posted to sci.space.history
OM[_6_]
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Default "El Kabong" Gemini parasail landing tests, 1965

On Mon, 23 Jul 2007 22:15:30 +0200, Jochem Huhmann
wrote:

But why did they use skids? With the ability for precision landings you
can land at a runway and use wheels.


....Wheels usually require tires, and tires generally require inner
tubes or a pressurized gas holding the walls rigid, and at that time
there were questions about vacuum storage and temperature issues that
made tires something that had to wait. And besides, skids folded
flatter, took up less weight, and above all else didn't blow out on
impact.

OM
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  #12  
Old July 24th 07, 07:19 AM posted to sci.space.history,rec.aviation.military
OM[_6_]
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Default "El Kabong" Gemini parasail landing tests, 1965

On Tue, 24 Jul 2007 00:17:13 GMT, h (Rand
Simberg) wrote:

Of course, now we know that Huckleberry Hound was totally gay.


....He and Rob Arndt should get along fine, then.

OM
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  #13  
Old July 24th 07, 07:27 AM posted to sci.space.history
OM[_6_]
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Default "El Kabong" Gemini parasail landing tests, 1965

On Mon, 23 Jul 2007 19:38:56 -0400, "R.Glueck"
wrote:

While totally unrelated, I think these cartoons were following to catch up
on the "Rocky and Bullwinkle" programs, which were perhaps the the funniest,
most intellectually pleasing, topical, cartoons of their day. These were
cartoons which didn't talk down to children or adults, and actually required
some literacy to really understand. These were produced by Jay Ward and
Bill Scott.


....Up to the day they died, neither Jay nor Bill, or even June Foray -
who's still alive and looking great for a gal in her 70's - ever
understood how the name "Irving Farquard" got past the censors.

OM
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  #14  
Old July 24th 07, 09:52 AM posted to sci.space.history
Jochem Huhmann
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Default "El Kabong" Gemini parasail landing tests, 1965

OM writes:

On Mon, 23 Jul 2007 22:15:30 +0200, Jochem Huhmann
wrote:

But why did they use skids? With the ability for precision landings you
can land at a runway and use wheels.


...Wheels usually require tires, and tires generally require inner
tubes or a pressurized gas holding the walls rigid, and at that time
there were questions about vacuum storage and temperature issues that
made tires something that had to wait. And besides, skids folded
flatter, took up less weight, and above all else didn't blow out on
impact.


OK, I certainly can see that all this is significant with such a
small craft as Gemini was.

But it's funny, everytime I look at Gemini I think that it was a capsule
with great potential, both Apollo and the Shuttle look somewhat
fundamentally wrong and clumsy compared to it. I can perfectly imagine a
Gemini about the size of the Shuttle crew compartment sailing down,
deploying its landing gear and touching down at a runway...



Jochem

--
"A designer knows he has arrived at perfection not when there is no
longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
  #15  
Old July 24th 07, 03:43 PM posted to sci.space.history
Jeff Findley
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Default "El Kabong" Gemini parasail landing tests, 1965


"Jochem Huhmann" wrote in message
...
But it's funny, everytime I look at Gemini I think that it was a capsule
with great potential, both Apollo and the Shuttle look somewhat
fundamentally wrong and clumsy compared to it. I can perfectly imagine a
Gemini about the size of the Shuttle crew compartment sailing down,
deploying its landing gear and touching down at a runway...


http://www.astronautix.com/craft/bigemini.htm

From above, Big Gemini would have used the same sort of skid landing system
being discussed here. The advanced concept was to have held 12 astronauts.

The above could have been to service a big (Saturn V launched) space station
whose diameter was the same as the first and second stages (i.e.
considerably bigger than Skylab).

Of course, all these studies were for naught since NASA's funding was
drastically cut once Apollo/Saturn development was largely complete. There
was great support for beating the Soviets to the moon, to show our technical
and economic superiority, but there was little support for manned space
travel beyond that.

Jeff
--
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a
little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor
safety"
- B. Franklin, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1919)


  #16  
Old July 24th 07, 06:44 PM posted to sci.space.history
Pat Flannery
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Default "El Kabong" Gemini parasail landing tests, 1965



Jeff Findley wrote:
"Jochem Huhmann" wrote in message
...

But it's funny, everytime I look at Gemini I think that it was a capsule
with great potential, both Apollo and the Shuttle look somewhat
fundamentally wrong and clumsy compared to it. I can perfectly imagine a
Gemini about the size of the Shuttle crew compartment sailing down,
deploying its landing gear and touching down at a runway...


http://www.astronautix.com/craft/bigemini.htm

From above, Big Gemini would have used the same sort of skid landing system
being discussed here. The advanced concept was to have held 12 astronauts.



And then on to Mars:
http://www.ninfinger.org/~sven/model...inggemini.html
Where amazingly, you don't even need backpacks to breathe...which makes
one wonder what the helmets are for.


Pat
  #17  
Old July 24th 07, 08:33 PM posted to sci.space.history
Jochem Huhmann
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Default "El Kabong" Gemini parasail landing tests, 1965

Pat Flannery writes:

And then on to Mars:
http://www.ninfinger.org/~sven/model...inggemini.html
Where amazingly, you don't even need backpacks to breathe...which makes
one wonder what the helmets are for.


Probably for head-protection when they fall while climbing up that thing.


Jochem

--
"A designer knows he has arrived at perfection not when there is no
longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
  #18  
Old July 24th 07, 09:08 PM posted to sci.space.history
Pat Flannery
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Default "El Kabong" Gemini parasail landing tests, 1965



Jochem Huhmann wrote:


And then on to Mars:
http://www.ninfinger.org/~sven/model...inggemini.html
Where amazingly, you don't even need backpacks to breathe...which makes
one wonder what the helmets are for.


Probably for head-protection when they fall while climbing up that thing.


It looks like he's setting up a portable barbecue grill at the base of
the landing leg.
Probably to cook those sausage plants CDR Christopher Draper found in
"Robinson Crusoe On Mars".
I'd like to have a rope tied on me for the climb down the side, low Mars
gravity or not.
Note that the wings and vertical fins on the lander have no control
surfaces on them, and that there are no control thrusters on the thing's
exterior.
We now know what's in the interior of the spacecraft's aft
section...huge gyroscopes. ;-)

Pat
  #19  
Old March 10th 12, 09:44 PM
Michael Wolf Michael Wolf is offline
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Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Pat Flannery View Post
Jim Oberg wrote:
"El Kabong" Gemini parasail landing tests, 1965


http://www.temple-telegram.com/story/2007/07/23/42334


As far as the name goes, check up on the cartoons of the era:
http://www.bcdb.com/bcdb/detailed.cgi?film=9597
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quick_Draw_McGraw
I assume the idea came about as Gemini swinging down out of the sky like
Quick Draw McGraw on his rope, with the parawing serving the part of the
cape., and the black Gemini and it's windows looking like his masked face.

snip

Pat
Is is my understanding that the name refers to the sound the capsule mockup made when it hit the desert floor. "El Kabong" is a mockup of the Gemini capsule: same dimensions, shape, mass and aerodynamic properties. The Real McCoy is at the Kalamazoo Aviation History Museum (aka Air Zoo) and, as a docent, I was required to know and understand the artifact and its history.

MA Wolf
 




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