Rockets, Missiles, & Space Travel

Rockets, Missiles, & Space Travel by Willy Ley Third revised edition, 1957

Chapters:

1. The Beginnings of an Idea
2. The Decades of the Great Dreams
3. "The Rockets' Red Glare"
4. Prophets with Some Honor
5. The Battle of the Formulae
6. Success, Failure, and Politics
7. The Return of the war Rocket
8. Peenemunde
9. White Sands
10. The Rocket into Cosmic Space
11. The Shot around the World
12. The Spaceship
    

Business-End of the TWA Moonliner

TWA Moonliner Disneyland, originally uploaded by flimflam1500.

The TWA Moonliner at Disneyland, or rather the business end of this rocket mock-up. It looks like the designers based their dummy engine on the V-2's with the steerable direction vanes jutting directly into the rocket exhaust.

The X-15 Rollout

The first X-15 (56-6670) rocket powered research aircraft is rolled out in 1958. At this time, the XLR-99 rocket engine is not ready, so to make the low-speed flights (below Mach 3), the X-15 team will fit a pair of XLR-11 engines into the modified rear fuselage. These were basically the same engines used in the X-1 aircraft.

The X-15 is a product of the accumulated knowledge of manned rocket craft, the first true spacecraft, with hope to make our first flight to the edge of space.