FIRST STEPS TOWARD SPACE - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

184 SMITHSONIAN ANNALS OF FLIGHT
tests was carried out in our country, even many
decades ago. The main result of bench and flight
tests made in those years was that they confirmed
the correctness of the theory and computation
methods developed earlier, and showed in practice
the performance capability and reliability of engines
of a new type. They also allowed more precise
choices to be made concerning the trend of
further research and development.
Concurrently with the flight tests, our country
carried out theoretical and experimental investigations
of the processes in ramjets, and undertook the
study and development of separate ramjet elements
as well as engines as integral units. All this work
was begun at GIRD. Particular attention was paid
to the study of the fuel-burning process and the
development of the combustion chamber, the investigation
of air intakes for supersonic ramjets,
and the development of control methods and
systems.
Comparison of the results of ramjet flight tests
carried out in 1939-42 and analogous tests made in
1948 indicates convincingly what great successes
Soviet science and engineering achieved in creating
ramjets during those years.
A rather valuable work on investigating and
developing ramjets was performed at the Moscow
Aviation Institute 1942-43.
The achievements of Soviet scientists in creating
theoretical and experimental principles of ramjets
are exemplified in the scientific work, "The Ram­
jets" by Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor
Mikhail Makarovich Bondaryuk and Doctor of
Technical Sciences Sergei Mikhailovich Il'yashchenko.
NOTES
1. K. E. Tsiolkovskiy, "Issledovaniye mirovykh prostranstv
reaktivnymi priborami" [Investigation of Outer Space by
Means of Reactive Devices], Nauchnoye Obozreniye [Science
Review], no. 5, May 1903. An English version of this paper
appears on pp. 24-59 of Works on Rocket Technology, by
K. E. Tsiolkovskiy, NASA TT F-243, November 1965, which
is a translation of Trudy po raketnoi tekhnike, M. K. Tikhonravov,
ed. (Moscow: Oborongiz, 1947).—Ed.
2. F. A. Tsander, Problema poleta pri pomoshchi reaktivnykh
apparatov: mezhplanetnyye polety [Problems of Flight
by Jet Propulsion: Interplanetary Flights] (Moscow, 1932).
Available in English as NASA TT F-147.—Ed.
3. Rene Lorin, "Une Experience simple relative au propulseur
a reaction directe," L'Aerophile, vol. 21, 15 November
1913, p. 514.—Ed.
4. G. Arturo Crocco, "Iperavmazione e superaviazione"
[Hyperaviation and Superaviation], L'Aerotecnica, vol. 11,
October 1931, pp. 1173-1220.—Ed.
5. B. S. Stechkin, "Teoriya vozdushnogo reaktivnogo
dvigatelya" [Theory of the Air-Breathing Jet Engine], Tekhnika
Vozdushnogo Flota [Air Force Technology] no. 2, 1929.
—Ed.
6. In those years there was no fixed terminology. Therefore
a two-stage ramjet rocket was called a "wingless torpedo
with an air jet engine."
7. "A Brief Report of Airborne Air Jet Engine Tests to
Increase the Maximum Flight Velocity," p. 74 (in the
Scientific Archives of the Natural Science and Engineering
History Institute, USSR Academy of Sciences).