ROCKET FLIGHT

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 302, 5 December 1936, Page 3

ROCKET FLIGHT

WORK OF AMERICANS 5 A PRIZE AWARDED. In 1911 Robert Esnault Pelterie read a paper before the French Physical Society on roeket motors and the possibility of reaching other jrorlda by their means, says the New York Times. As a serious French aeronautical engineer, a man whose aeroplanes were internationally known for their -speed and power, he had no desire to court ridicule. So he eryptMUkHy entitled his paper “Considejations Concerning the Results of Lightening Motors to an Indefinite ExtenjL” It was the first serious engineering consideration of inter* planetary navigation." B> 1927 the public had become so accustomed to the thought of voyaging* in space 'that Esnault Pelterie

read another paper at the Sorbonne

under the auspices of the Astronomicall Society of France. This time he sot. beat about the bush, but frankly discussed < <( Sockets and the of'. Interplanetary Voy-,H|jl|^'..a?hr-immediate result was the founding of the annual REP-Hirsch - 5000 francs for the most ,-Xtluable contribution of the year to . af wlrat th® 'French’ if had happily called been annually award- ' astronautical . the Astronomical Sof 1 France. First ,to win it the German physicist and neer > 3 * emann Oberth, for his *‘Sockets in Inter-planetary * Though published as early technically antiquated, • the bookremains the most exhaustive neßticZ" 11611 ° a tho Bubject astro ‘ -^ HELATEE AWARDS. ,^J Wa,d w »» “ade in 1929. In *»3O Pierre Montagne r. reived the for his. paper on VA Study of Matures Utilmble in the P-ppulsion of Rockets.” No awards£»*d® *or the years 1931 and. .Montagne was again honourfor hls study Qf chemiAry Sternfeld, .hT?® 0 ® e P£*neer, received a encouragement” *(2000 for his “introduction to’ tyJtfnonautics.” A similar prize went In 1934 to iWjrpamblano, a French engineer, ? r , ■ “Autopropulsive Explosive Backets,” a paper which presented results of proving- stand tests X^ft ha had mada with PQWdef

now comes that this year tje/jrize goes to the American goefcet SbCiety and one of its membtrg, Alfred Africano, who is thus honoured - for his mathematical analysis of the-results achieved by the society in various tests of rockets designed and built for it by John Shesta. The award is given for the following reasons: 1. It (the society) was first to r « a e>,MWed equal to that of sound, and to. obtain observational data about the flight of rockets at such velocities.

It developed (1) a practical metbedoT handling liquid fuels, (2) a-useful valve for controlling fuels under pressure in field' conditions of roeket flight, (3) a practical and certain method of igniting the rocket and firing it by remote control. 3. A body of practical knowledge and experience was developed among a group of experimenters which will result in more rapid advancement of rocket construction hereafter. *• These results and technical details were, for the first time anywhere, published in a technical journal devoted to rocketry and as-, tronauttcs, and all details were made .permanently available tn anv qualified scientist or experimenter through -the .growing technical library of the society.