Rocket Propulsion Elements.

The first English-language engineering textbook to treat rocket propulsion systematically, grown out of an upper-division course Sutton taught through the UCLA Extension Division. Sutton was Supervisor of Propulsion Development at North American Aviation, and the manuscript was submitted to military authorities for security clearance before publication, since much of the underlying data on rocket engines was still classified.

Chapters cover nozzle theory and thermodynamics, propellant performance calculations, liquid and solid propellant systems, feed systems, flight performance, and rocket testing, illustrated with contemporary material including a V-2 power-plant flow diagram and photographs of White Sands test launches. First published in 1949, the book went through repeated revisions over the following decades and remains, in a later edition, the standard English-language textbook on rocket propulsion.

This copy is the first printing of the first edition, retaining its dust jacket; the second printing and the second edition (1956) are also in the collection.