Ford's part in the lunar landings

Ford famously put the world on wheels, and also played a huge part in the U.S. space programme and Apollo 11 moon landings. Philco-Ford’s responsibilities ranged from overseeing pilot training in this Luna Landing Test Vehicle to building and maintaining NASA Mission Control.

All of the equipment that enabled the mission — including the transmission of Neil Armstrong’s voice back to Mission Control and out to the rest of the world — was possible because of Ford’s role in building and maintaining Mission Control Center.

Philco had invented the surface barrier transistor, the first high-frequency transistor that enabled the development of high-speed computers. It’s effort to miniaturize and perfect the transistor led to work with NASA, but after some financial difficulties Ford purchased the company in 1961 and renamed it Philco-Ford.

Philco-Ford’s responsibilities for were enormous and included the design of hardware and software systems to solve problems that had never been experienced before. The most critical task however, was this Lunar Landing Training Vehicle (LLTV), also known as the flying bedstead, which helped Luna module pilots master the intricacies of landing on the Moon in zero gravity.

The strange craft proved to be invaluable; the Luna module, known as Eagle, was due to land in a region known as Mare Tranquilitatis (the Sea of Tranquility), but as Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin approached the surface they noticed it was strewn with boulders that would make it very difficult to land.

With just two minutes of fuel left, Armstrong took manual control of Eagle, glided above the surface of the Moon until he saw a more suitable landing spot and landed with just 20 seconds of fuel left.

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