I Viaggi Interplanetari.

Volume 2 of the Enciclopedia Tascabile “Ultra,” a series of small popular booklets sold at two lire, by Franco Nava. Printed by Tip. Luigi Sala & figli, Milan, in November 1942 (dated “11-42-XXI” in the Fascist calendar), with distribution throughout Italy by S. A. Agire of Rome. The back cover advertises the series as keeping busy readers up to date with the latest word in each branch of knowledge.

The short Preface announces that interplanetary travel, once left to novelists, has become a problem for astronomy, ballistics, celestial mechanics, aerodynamics, physiology and radio, and that a new branch of science, astronautica, has been born. The Sommario lists thirteen sections, running from “Dall’atmosfera in su” and the cannon (“dalla fantasia alla realtà”) through the rocket and its applications to the Gussalli vehicle, the double-reaction propeller, the 1939 Gussalli astronautical vehicle, departure from Earth, criticisms of the Gussalli system with replies, and “L’uomo negli spazi siderali.” The rocket sections discuss Von Opel’s rocket car and the first rocket aeroplane, Goddard, Oberth, Valier, Tiling and Stemmer, and the book gives particular space to Luigi Gussalli’s proposals.

A small wartime Italian booklet in fragile paper wraps, with the cover chipped and torn along the edges.