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MERCURY PARAGLIDER BLUEPRINT, SIGNED BY MAX FAGET Geom(etry) Mercury Paraglider Control and Storage blueprint. image 1
MERCURY PARAGLIDER BLUEPRINT, SIGNED BY MAX FAGET Geom(etry) Mercury Paraglider Control and Storage blueprint. image 2
MERCURY PARAGLIDER BLUEPRINT, SIGNED BY MAX FAGET Geom(etry) Mercury Paraglider Control and Storage blueprint. image 3
Lot 79

MERCURY PARAGLIDER BLUEPRINT, SIGNED BY MAX FAGET
Geom(etry) Mercury Paraglider Control and Storage blueprint.

20 July 2016, 13:00 EDT
New York

Sold for US$625 inc. premium

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MERCURY PARAGLIDER BLUEPRINT, SIGNED BY MAX FAGET

Geom(etry) Mercury Paraglider Control and Storage blueprint. McDonnell Aircraft Corporation, St. Louis, MO, May 24/25, 1961. 24 x 50 inches, folded, 1/10 scale.

BOLDLY SIGNED and INSCRIBED: "MAX FAGET, Mercury Designer."

Illustrated are side and aft views of the Mercury spacecraft with paraglider airfoil control attach points, associated center-of-gravity (CG) marks, and astronaut hatch location. The placement of the heatshield under the spacecraft is shown and described: "...lowered serves as landing skid and shock absorber." Astronaut viewing lines are drawn being defined as maximum up vision and down vision. A separate drawing shows the paraglider stowage location in the spacecraft nose section.

The Mercury paraglider was a concept for returning the spacecraft to dry land using a triangular shaped inflatable airfoil. This would save the expense of numerous U.S. armed forces ships and aircraft during an ocean landing. Various engineering problems prevented the paraglider's use in time for the Mercury Program, but the concept was modified for use in "hang gliding" just a few years later.

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