They recalled that the third man to walk on the moon, Pete Conrad, spent a week in Cootamundra in the late 1980s in his post-NASA career as a vice-president of McDonnell Douglas.

"We both worked for Masling Industries which had a thriving helicopter and aircraft component overhaul business at Cootamundra airport," Mr Chaplin said.

"Masling also had the agency for McDonnell Douglas, which is how come Pete paid us a visit.

"He was only five foot six tall (168cm) but a ball of energy, and a real adrenalin junkie.

"He put on a very spectacular demonstration helicopter flight like nothing we'd ever seen before.

"He had the helicopter climbing fast with the tail pointing upwards - something it was never designed to do.

The helicopter belonged to our boss, Tony Masling, and was damaged a bit during the flight, so Peter Hearn had to fix it."

Conrad was commander of the Apollo 12 lunar mission which arrived on the moon only four months after the first moon landing by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.

He had a reputation in the US Navy and NASA as a rule-breaker and rebel, and joked about his small stature compared with Neil Armstrong when stepping onto the moon's surface.

He was recorded as saying "That may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me."

After surviving thousands of hours of jet fighter flight and numerous hazardous space trips, Conrad died at age 69 when he lost control of his Harley Davidson motorbike on a trip from his home at Huntington Beach to Monterey.