Important Figures in Aerospace History

"Any of various simple or complex tube like devices containing combustibles that on being ignited liberate gases whose action propels the tube through the air: used for pyrotechnic effect, signaling, carrying a lifeline, hurling explosives at an enemy, putting a space vehicle into orbit, etc."

A 231.90 ft high, 49 ft span, 1,616,800 lb behemoth that exerts 1,949,090 lbf during takeoff. Compared to "nell", Robert Goddard's first successful liquid fuel rocket; it rose to a maximum height of 41 feet. This drastic change happened in less than 70 years. Who made this quantum leap of technology possible in such a short period of time and who laid the framework for the modern rocket?

Prelude to Rocketry

Ptolemy was a genius of his time; he was a Greek mathematician, geographer, astronomer, and astrologer. Ptolemy had many major contributions of the time period, but the most influential contribution was his embracement of the solar system, also known as the Ptolemaic system. In the Ptolemaic system, the earth was the center of the universe. Ptolemy combined existing information to create a model that would last nearly 1,500 years.

Ptolemy's geocentric system stood for 1,500 years until Nicholas Copernicus, a polish astronomer, proposed that the planets have the Sun as the fixed center, which their motions are to be referred. That the Earth is a planet, which besides orbiting the Sun annually, also turns once daily on its own axis; and "that very slow, long term changes in the direction of this axis account for the precession of the equinoxes." While Copernicus's theories, in terms of accuracy, were about the same as Ptolemy's. Copernicus's theories did correctly explain many key concepts missing in Ptolemy's work.

"For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction."

Sir Isaac Newton came up with the science of rocketry. He published a book titled "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica", which described physical principles in nature. In this book Newton claimed three key rules that govern the motion of all objects; these are now called Newton's laws of motion.

1.Objects at rest will stay at rest and objects in motion will stay in motion in a straight line unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.

2.Force is equal to mass time acceleration.

3.For every action there is always an opposite and equal reaction.

These three laws made modern rocketry possible. With these, scientists were able and still are able to make accurate predictions of a rockets performance.

Humble beginnings

The Han dynasty was the first known users of a rocket like device. They, over 2,000 thousand years ago, experimented with gunpowder and fireworks. But, the Chinese cannot be classified as the first users of rockets, because the fireworks they used do not meet the definition of a rocket. This is because the devices used by the Chinese did not contain their own fuel, which is key to a rocket.

The idea of rockets was still unknown to the Europeans until Genghis Khan. Genghis was a powerful Mongol ruler who invaded Russia, Eastern Europe, and worked his way into Central Europe. In many battle reports Genghis is shown to have Chinese rocket mercenaries. Basically, Chinese men who would fire rockets in the direction of the enemy and hope to hit. The rockets were more of a mental weapon than physical, due to their highly inaccurate nature. But they did introduce the idea of rockets to the Europeans and the rest of the "civilized" world.

Once the civilized world knew of rockets, people might have seen the potential that rockets had; that's not the actual case. The British, a world super power, did not began to consider rockets for war fare or any other purpose until the Indians during the Mysore Wars used rockets effectively against the British. One man who saw the vast potential of these rockets was William Congreve. Congreve was inspired when he saw the rockets, and began work on rockets for use by the British Military. Parliemant allowed Congreve to compose two rocket companies, 100 Ð'- 200 soldiers, and these companies saw action at the Battle of Leipzig.

For his development and research of