- Year
- 1974
- By
- Durant, Frederick C. III, and George S. James (eds.)
- Published
- Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.
- Edition
- English. First edition, softcover.
- Shelf
- L8
- Catalog
- Reference Shelf
Smithsonian Annals of Flight, Number 10 — the final issue in that series before it continued as Smithsonian Studies in Air and Space.
Collects 27 papers from the International Academy of Astronautics’ first two History of Astronautics symposia: “Pre-1939 Memoirs of Astronautics,” held at Belgrade on 26 September 1967 during the XVIII IAF Congress, and its 1968 successor at New York during the XIX Congress.
The organizing philosophy was to invite the pioneers themselves wherever possible, and several papers are firsthand memoirs rather than secondary history: Hermann Oberth’s own “My Contributions to Astronautics,” Frank J. Malina on the GALCIT Rocket Research Project, G. Edward Pendray on the American Rocket Society’s early years, H. E. Ross on the British Interplanetary Society’s 1937–39 astronautical studies, and Louis Damblanc on his own multistage-rocket work of the 1930s, alongside Frederick C. Durant III’s paper on Robert Goddard and the Smithsonian.
Soviet rocketry is covered by B. V. Raushenbakh and Yu. V. Biryukov on Korolyev, and M. K. Tikhonravov on early Soviet liquid-propellant rockets. Editors’ preface signed “FCD III” and “GSJ,” Washington, D.C., August 1973.