FIRST STEPS TOWARD SPACE - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

148 SMITHSONIAN ANNALS OF FLIGHT
A--combustion chamber
B--expansion nozzle
C--gasoline tank
D--nitrogen pressure tank
E—oxygen tank
F--venturi tube
G--parachute and instrument
compartment
H--overall view
a y_
FIGURE 8.—Detail of ARS Rocket No. 3. From Astronautics,
no. 27 (October 1933), p. 3.
simply evaporated and blew out of the fill-hole as
fast as it could be poured in. 14
The other rockets which had been designed by
Committee members were in various stages of construction,
but one by one they were abandoned, for
it had become clear that building and shooting
whole rockets, when so many components—particularly
the motor—were in such an unsatisfactory
state of development, was really not productive.
The Experimental Committee had already devised
a small proving stand for individual motor tests,
with a view to developing a motor that would work
reliably and not burn out. John Shesta designed
this first ARS proving stand, and in constructing it
used the tanks, valves, and other parts of his rocket,
ARS No. 4.
•
FIGURE 9.—ARS Rocket No. 3, at Marine Park for launch
attempt in September 1934. From left, Shesta, Pendray, and
Smith. The gasoline tank is being pressurized with nitrogen
through a valve in the cone. The oxygen fill-hole is visible
just below the pressure inlet. Photo from Pendray Collection,
Princeton University Library.
With this equipment the Society then began a
long, often discouraging, but finally successful series
of motor development tests. These were conducted
at various places and sometimes under great difficulties
because, in the vicinity of New York, rocket
shots or motor tests were not welcomed by neighbors,
or approved by the police, and there was no
way of obtaining permission to carry on such experiments
in peace. As a consequence the Society
performed many of these tests under some harassment,
and found frequent and unannounced moving
of the testing ground to be a wise and sometimes
necessary precaution. Despite these problems, the
tests provided much data, increasing sophistication,
useful experience and know-how, and finally culminated
in the development of a practical liquidcooled
regenerative motor designed by James H.
Wyld, a long-time member of the Experimental