Evening star., 1938-04-10
Scene: A New York executives office.
Time: 10 o'clock, a morning tn 1922.

let us drop the curtain and raise
it on a recent test at rocket prov
ing ground Tilted upward in the launching
rack is a twelve-foot projectile on wings.
Crouching in safety trench, an expert press
Is key. White flame roars back from the
exhaust nozzle, and the test plane streaks
skyward. But almost instantly its wings
Iumple from the terrific speed, and it falls.
instruments reveal an amazing acceleration
70 $50 miles an hour in three seconds'
|; Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh in praising
the 3O-year research of DR.. r. H. Goddard.
not long ago said: I'VE must look to the
rocket for speeds above few hundred miles
,an hour, and consider that rockets may carry
explosives faster than airplanes and farther
than projectiles."
The modern rocket motor is a combustion
chamber in which liquid oxygen and fuel
usually gasoline or alcohoD are fired under
pressure. A jet of exploding gases is forced
through the nozzle at tremendous speed, and
the reaction or "kickback" hurls the rocket
upward Goddard's latest rockets exceed 700
miles an hour. and will probably soon sur
pass 1000.
Rockets are not practical for ground We
hicles. For planes they are practical only in
comparatively empty space, with no air to
resist acceleratim. Ordinary stratosphere
planes require some air for operations, and
will find their ceiling under twenty miles;
but rockets, which operate efficiently in a
vacuum, are ideal at that altitude and above.
,I~ ol,, toI
with rockets In Austria, special rockets carry
mail across mountain. Germany is credited
with rocket shell ranging GAO miles, and
with sending man up six miles in another
type Germany denies the stories; but an
English investigator insists that they are
true, and that pilot rocket was actually
built. Regardless, it is known that six nations
nave proving grounds, with reputable scien-
lists at work.
Some of the figures of these scientists are
fascinating DR.. Herman Oberth of Rumahia
las measured jet velocities of $500 miles an
lour. Even with half that power wasted,
transatlantic crossings would require only
orty-fve minutes. Max Valier, killed in
ocket test, predicted Berlin-New York
light in ninety minutes. Goddard expects
eak efficiency around 1900 miles an hour.
Such speeds would gear civilization to
high pitch - might even ruin it by giving
destructive power to unscrupulous countries.
But experts are more concerned with tech
1ical problems, such as insuring a swift yet
safe acceleration which the navy gets by
:atapulting its planes.
Rockets controlled by gyroscopes, by radio
and by photoelectric cells are now being de-
veloped, to be shot to high attitudes and low
,red by parachutes or unfolding wings. In
;truments and animals will be carried frst
hen mail, and at last human passengers -
Unless daredevis upset this order. Lack of
funds delays the vast research needed before
he building of high-altitude ship, but on the
oasis of tests and designs it is possible to pre-
NEW flight.
The New York terminal is on Long Island.
company limousine brings you at twilight
% the take off station, from which catapult
aiway extends for two miles, gradually in
lining upward on massive trestle. The
aunching car is streamlined locomotive. In
IS cradle lies the Paris ship, rocket tubes ex-
ending rearward Wings folded back, land
ng gear retracted, it looks like a giant shell.
Ticket and passport approved, you enter
round compartment with soft lights in a
lone shaped ceiling, and luxurious swivel
hairs arranged in a circle. The compartment
+, e,,crended so that II remains level regard