
I just won this Apollo Command Module couch in auction! I have never seen one of these in private hands before, and this one has “Serial Number 1” on the stabilizer beam.
I plan to attach the Flight control joysticks and shock absorber that I have collected earlier, on my way to building a complete Apollo Command Module interior at home (I have a long way to go!)
From NASA: “Three crew couches are located in the Command Module. The couches are produced by the Weber Aircraft Division of Walter Kidde and Co., Burbank, Calif (who also produced a range of aircraft ejection seats and the ejection seats used for Gemini). The couches are individually adjustable units made of hollow steel tubing and covered with a heavy, fireproof fiberglass cloth (Armalon). The couches are supported by a head beam and two side stabilizer beams, which are in turn supported by eight attenuator struts (two each for the Y and Z axes and four for the X axis), which absorb the impact of landing. The couches support the crew during acceleration and deceleration, position the crew at their duty stations, and provide support for the spacecraft’s translation and rotation hand controls, lights, and other equipment.”
A metal plate on the Head Beam reads:
“US Weber Aircraft, Burbank Calif.
A Division of Walter Kidde & Co Inc
Name: Couch Crew, Foldable
Contract No.: NAS 9-150
Manufacturing Date: May 1968″
From the back cover of the auction catalog. You can see the joysticks in position:
Apollo 9’s Rusty shows us how it’s done, 


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