Space General Corporation Lunar Exploration Suit, Model MK 1: Allyn B. Hazard

Allyn B. Hazard (1928-1979)

The inventor of the Moon Suit and founder/CEO of the Space General Corporation, was engineer Allyn Burson "Hap" Hazard. I did some cursory research on Hazard - seems he had an interesting career (the image above was copied from a Smithsonian image archive for JPL and used without permission). Allyn was born in Winnebago, IL on August 22 1924 and passed away in Los Angeles during August 1979, at age 54 or 55 (the birth year listed in SSDI is 1924 so presumably the JPL image has the wrong birth year). He was buried in Guaje Pines Cemetery, Los Alamos, New Mexico, United States.

Allyn Hazard was in the Navy towards the end of World War 2 but he was better known as a Navy space flight coordinator working at JPL during the planning and execution of the Ranger program. Earlier, in 1951 in a somewhat unexpected incident he accidentally captured a failing USAF B36 on film, which made it first into various news reports and later into Life Magazine as a pictorial. In 1952 he experimented with a new design for a hydrofoil boat and was awarded a patent for it (below). It was his post-JPL design for an Integrated Moonmobile-Spacesuit (AKA Moon Suit) Concept that brought him wide acclaim, including the cover of Life Magazine, which we famously know.

"HAP HAZARD, who shot the crash, is an engineer, inventor and a dianetics auditor.

Life Magazine May 21, 1951 "Camera Records Big B-36 Crash"

Life Magazine ran a piece with still shots of the B-36 that Hazard shot on his home movie camera.

Freak boat that flies on stilts, 1952

Freak boat that flies on stilts, 26 March 1952. Allyn B Hazard -- 27 years (in boat) 1317 1/2 South Gladys Street, San Gabriel.;Caption slip reads: 'Photographer: Emery. Date: 1952-03-26. Reporter: Phister. Assignment: Freak boat that flies on stilts. 16 or 17: Closeup of Allyn B 'Hap' Hazard, 27 years, of 1317 1/2 South Gladys St., San Gabriel, mechanical engineer, developer operator & owner of 'boat that flies'---shown after testing boat at Long Beach Marine Stadium. 38-39, 42-43, 72-73, 96-97, 01-02, 24-25, 44-45, 48-49, 32-33: Action shots of Hazard putting his experimental boat through high-speed paces, when boat rises about two feet over water and travels on metal vanes extending into water. Boat 'flies on stilts'. Closeups of one of the vanes and its control, shown by Hazard'.. (Photo by Los Angeles Examiner/USC Libraries/Corbis via Getty Images)

Hazard's Patent on "Hydrofoil Boat"

An Integrated Moonmobile-Spacesuit Concept 610086 (1961.01.01)

Citation: Hazard, A., "An Integrated Moonmobile-Spacesuit Concept," SAE Technical Paper 610086, 1961

Valley Times Collection from the Los Angeles Public Library "Moon suit" 1961

Pictured is engineer Allyn B. Hazard in a moon suit he designed. Hazard is a senior development engineer in the Missile Engineering Section of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The suit was on loan to a UCLA biology laboratory class which studied its effectiveness. It was one of the first spacesuits ever designed. Photograph dated February 16, 1961.

Valley Times Collection from the Lost Angeles Public Library "New trends at home show" 1964

Valley Times Collection from the Los Angeles Public Library "New trends at home show" 1964

Photograph caption dated June 12, 1965 reads "Home show queen Janice Johnson is helped out of a model of the Apollo spacecraft by Hap Hazard, space engineer, wearing the very latest design in suits for moon crawling. Cutaway model of Apollo is now on exhibit in Sports Arena, along with other aerospace features, 12:30 to 11 p.m. daily through June 20."

Link sent to me by a retired researcher in Santa Fe working on a space archeology project in 2019, Ross Deforest Sackett. My heartfelt "Thank you!" goes out to him for this and other contributions.

NASA SP-4205 "CHARIOTS OF APOLLO - A History of Manned Lunar Space Craft"

NASA SP-4205 "CHARIOTS OF APOLLO - A History of Manned Lunar Space Craft" 1979 Page 64

This NASA publication references a paper done by Hazard published in 1959.

"Across the country from Huntsville, another NASA center had different ideas about the best way to put man on the moon. Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, suggested a link-up of vehicles on the moon itself. A number of unmanned payloads-a vehicle designed to return to earth and one or more tankers-would land on the lunar surface at a preselected site. Using automatic devices, the return vehicle could then be refueled and checked out by ground control before the crew left the earth.

After the manned spacecraft arrived on the moon, the crew would transfer to the fully fueled return vehicle for the trip home. One of the earliest proposals for this approach was put together by Allyn B. Hazard, a senior development engineer at the laboratory. His 1959 scheme laid the ground work for JPL's campaign for lunar-surface rendezvous during the Apollo mode deliberations.(7)"

(7). [Nicholas E. Golovin], draft report of DoD-NASA Large Launch Vehicle Planning Group (LLVPG), 1 [November 1961 ], pp. 6B-39 through 6B-42; Allyn B. Hazard, "A Plan for Manned Lunar and Planetary Exploration," November 1959.

From the Earth to the Moon 1998 TV Mini-Series Episode 5: Spider

Allyn B. Hazard is played by actor David Brisbin

"Part five of this twelve-part docudrama series about the development of the U.S. space program as the country prepares to send men to the moon. Part five, entitled "Spider," examines the work of the engineers who built the lunar capsule. When Tom Dolan proposes the idea of a lunar orbit rendezvous between a command module and lunar module, John Houbolt of NASA approves the option as sensible and safe. With Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation in Bethpage, New York, approved to construct the lunar module, Tom Kelly and his team of engineers struggle to figure out how to lighten the heavy weight of the craft. They eliminate standard items in most spacecrafts, like seats, thermal shields, and windows. When construction begins, Kelly grasps the huge task ahead, considering all the parts must be handmade and repeatedly tested. But as the time for the scheduled lift-off nears, Kelly realizes the module will not be ready, so the engineers labor harder then ever to meet the tight deadline. Finally, the module is ready and astronauts Jim McDivitt, Dave Scott, and Rusty Schweikart wait anxiously for the launch. After a successful launch, the module separates from the command craft and begins its journey around the moon. But as McDivitt and Schweikart prepare to partake in a historic space walk, Schweikart gets sick and the mission gets scrapped. As McDivitt and Schweikart prepare to shut down the module and reconnect with the command craft, McDivitt decides that Schweikart is feeling better and he orders the first two-man spacewalk. Back at mission control, Kelly nervously awaits word of whether the lunar module and command craft have reconnected."

Photos I grabbed of Allyn B. Hazard from various online sources:

Most of the rocky sequences with Hazard in the #3 painted suit are from the Mojave Desert, I believe. The photos of him donning the #8 suit (probably the same prototype with an updated number) seem to be from later publicity appearances.