I think rdbob is getting confused with that trainer that Neil had to eject from just before it crashed.
He may be. Conspiracists use that instance to create a completely fictional notion that rocket-powered VTOL is impossible. They ignore the hundreds of successful test flights. And they ignore the root cause of Armstrong's crash: mechanical failure. When something goes wrong with even the most ordinary machinery, disaster results. It doesn't often cast doubt upon the fundamental workability of the underlying principles, simply upon how they were implemented in that one case.
If you're driving down the highway and the steering wheel comes off in your hand, you will crash. That's not an indictment of the whole principle of automotive transporation. The essential principles of the automobile are still sound; it's simply that some dunce didn't tighten a fastener enough.
Out of hundreds of successful flights, the hastily-built single-purpose VTOL trainers crashed only three times: none of them due to failures of the fundamental principles of rocket-powered VTOL.
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