Gemini Paraglider

As you may or may not know, Gemini was originally designed for eventual land landings using an inflated parafoil. These illustrations show the main landing gear in the stowed position on the engineering mockup, the partially deployed nose gear, and artists conceptions of the landing. Unfortunately, many problems cropped up in the testing program, resulting in some rather vigorous landings and too many delays to incorporate the scheme in the actual Gemini Missions. If you want to know more about this aspect of the Gemini program, find the Fall 1993 (volume 2, number 3) issue of Quest magazine. Thanx to Michael J. Mackowski for providing these illustrations... sorry, but copies of these are not available.






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Ninfinger self portrait
Sven Knudson, IPMS#32490
sknudson@austin.rr.com