Between 1969 and 1972, Grumman produced a series of insignias for their Lunar Modules which were
distributed in limited quantities to their employees in the form of decals and prints. Sadly these
wonderful period designs
were never produced as embroidered patches.
I've set out to rectify this by producing runs of these 'lost' patches, with my intent being to
stick as closely as possible to the period style of the original decal artwork rather than to try to update
the designs with more colors, fill, or flashy detail. The patches are designed to have a vintage look, using
partially-embroidered designs on twill backing cloth in some cases, and using vintage-style stitching
patterns for the backgrounds on the fully-embroidered designs.
Pictured on the left is the full set of 9 Grumman LM embroidered patches based
on the decals for spacecraft LM4 through to LM12.
Note that I consider this set of patches to be distinct from the LM-1 or LM-3 replica patches detailed above, since those
embroidered designs were never part of the sets of decals produced at Grumman's Bethpage plant by the teams working on the
Lunar Modules.
The origin of an LM insignia
Although sadly we don't know the origin of most of these Lunar Module insignia designs we do know
the background of the LM-10 artwork.
Pictured right is Ray Eschert, who came up with the
design of the original LM-10 insignia back in 1969 whilst working as the
LM-10 Space Craft Assembly & Test Team Administrator
at Grumman's Bethpage, Long Island, NY site.
You can read the story of Ray's time at Grumman,
and the background to the production of the LM
decals, in this short article:
The Story Behind the Grumman LM-10 Insignia
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