ESDU Engineer
Issue 14
An ESDU Cameo: To the Moon
(By Dr A.J. Barrett)
Several years ago, an ESDU sales representative called on Grumman (now Northrop Grumman). While in the reception area, he noticed a display of aircraft models designed and built by the company. Among them was theLunar Excursion Module (LEM) in which Neil Armstrong made the first lunar landing.
Not knowing that Grumman had participated in building the LEM, the representative made an inquiry of it during his appointment with a senior design engineer. He learned that this particular engineer had been involved in the LEM project and that ESDU was used extensively throughout. The engineer went on to explain that since there was no previous experience on which to draw, they had to predict the effects of vibration and stress on the craft after take-off, during flight, and after landing on the moon. The goal was to design a craft that could withstand such vibration and stress with a minimum weight penalty.
ESDU’s Structures, Stress & Strength, and Vibration & Acoustic Fatigue Series were used in the design calculations. His comment remains, “I don’t know how we could have done it without ESDU”.
Back in the early 1970s, when these events were fresh, we had a display about the LEM and Grumman’s use of ESDU data. Permission to create this had been approved by Grumman and the display served to re-assure Committee Members that the data did indeed get used. A further mention featured in ESDU’s annual report for 1972 with the following comment.
“The same stress concentration data applied in the design of the consistently successful lunar module also helped to explain the fretting fatigue failure of a pair of garden shears. This indicates the diverse applications possible for Data Items and the opportunities they offer in the transfer of technology”.
Dr A.J. (Tony) Barrett joined The Royal Aeronautical Society Technical Department in 1952. He was subsequently responsible for the creation of ESDU from that Technical Department and was Director of ESDU until his retirement in 1986. He has kindly offered to prepare a number of “cameos” describing features of the Company’s history.