LANDMARK TEST CRAFT TO JOIN WALK OF FAME CELEBRATION.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Two historical artifacts - a plywood, wingless airplane and an aircraft used to study piloting techniques for a moon landing - will be part of this year's Aerospace Walk of Honor celebration.

The two aircraft - the M2-F1 lifting body and the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle - will be displayed in front of the Lancaster Performing Arts Center for the Aerospace Walk of Honor ceremonies at noon Sept. 23. The two aircraft will be on loan from the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center.

``We at Dryden are proud to make these historic aerospace vehicles available in the city of Lancaster as we pay tribute to this year's inductees into the Walk of Honor,'' said Joe Ramos, associate director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration facility.

Lancaster officials announced the loan of the aircraft for the event Tuesday. It was also announced that Boeing was donating $10,000 to help finance this year's ceremonies.

The Aerospace Walk of Honor recognizes the contributions made to aerospace by test pilots who had some association with Edwards Air Force Base. Each year, the city selects five pilots to have their names attached to granite monuments along Lancaster Boulevard.

With the addition of this year's honorees - Frank Borman, Gordon Fullerton, George Jansen, Donald Mallick and Russell Schleeh - the city will have 55 names along the walk.

Mallick, a Lancaster resident, flew both the M2-F1 and the LLRV during the 1960s.

The M2-F1 was a plywood aircraft developed to see whether it was possible to fly and land a wingless airplane. The aircraft was designed in-house by Dryden engineers in the early 1960s.

To get airborne, the aircraft was towed behind a souped-up Pontiac convertible at speeds of 120 mph.

Mallick recalled that he was at the Test Pilot School at Edwards when the commandant at the time, Chuck Yeager - who would later be among the first five Walk of Honor inductees - called him outside.

``He said, 'We're going to NASA to fly the M2-F1,' '' Mallick recalled. ``We both got to fly it a couple of times.''

A series of other ``lifting body'' aircraft followed during the 1960s and early '70s. Information from the program gave NASA the confidence to have space shuttles returned to Earth in unpowered landings.

The LLRV was developed as a way to simulate lunar landings for the Apollo program. Built of aluminum alloy trusses and shaped like a four- legged bedstead, the LLRV used a turbofan engine to lift off.

Once at the test altitude, the turbofan engine was throttled back to support five-sixths of the vehicle's weight, simulating the moon's gravity. The aircraft used two lift rockets for climbing and descending and 16 smaller rocket motors mounted in pairs for control.

``It was like a slow-motion world,'' Mallick said of the LLRV's flight characteristics. ``You had to be patient with it.''

Astronaut Neil Armstrong, also now a member of the Walk of Honor, credited the LLRV for giving him confidence during his descent to the moon during the Apollo 11 mission.

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) A Lunar Landing Research Vehicle will be on display at the Walk of Honor ceremony.

(2) The 1960s-era M2-F1 was flown by test pilot Donald Mallick, one of this year's Aerospace Walk of Honor inductees.