Robert H. Goddard the Roswell Years

by F.C. Durant

A comprehensive, well-illustrated technical history of Dr. Goddard's most advanced and exciting rocket experiments in New Mexico. Specifications, dimensions, performance data, and rare photos show how simple gyroscopes (and adjustable vanes in the exhaust flow) steered his rockets--and much, much more. On 23 November 1929, Goddard met with Charles A. Lindbergh. Through the personal efforts of Lindbergh, Goddard received a $50,000 two-year research grant from the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Foundation. Dr. Goddard’s increasingly ambitious tests demanded more open space, so he took a leave of absence from Clark University and moved his experiments to the more open skies near Roswell, New Mexico. There, with his wife and a few assistants, Goddard conducted a remarkable, decade-long program of tests that resulted in flights of large, variable thrust, liquid-fueled rockets to heights of up to 2,300 m and speeds of over 800 km/hr. From 1930 to 1941, he launched rockets of increasing complexity and capability. He developed systems for steering a rocket in flight by using a rudder-like device to deflect the gaseous exhaust, with gyroscopes to keep the rocket headed in the proper direction. At Roswell, Dr. Goddard developed the first gyro-stabilization apparatus for rockets (1932), and first used deflector vanes in the blast of the rocket motor to stabilize and guide the rockets. By 1935, Goddard was testing 15-ft long liquid rockets, and on 8 March was the first to launch a supersonic liquid-propellant rocket. One of this tests reached an altitude of 7500 feet. The culmination of this effort was a successful launch of a rocket to an altitude of 9,000 ft in 1941. Goddard's most ambitious, most advanced, and most exciting experiments were tested near Roswell, New Mexico, and this is the complete, detailed, and technical record of those projects. At Roswell, he conceived and conducted a remarkable program of design, test, and flights of liquid propellant rockets.

Paperback

Published January 1, 1973