FIRST STEPS TOWARD SPACE - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

10 SMITHSONIAN ANNALS OF FLIGHT
the problem of precise and proportional flows of
oxygen and fuel. 31
As early as 1930, REP studied, with the cooperation
of Pierre Montagne, the optimal theoretical
conditions for reaction engine carburation. 32 This
study permitted the determination of the mixture
ratio of liquid oxygen and petroleum ether to
provide optimum performance.
In 1932, REP, at his laboratory on Rue des
Abondances, in Boulogne-sur-Seine, with Montagne
and Salle, attacked the problem of constructing this
reaction engine and developed a test stand at Satory
which enabled him to study, from 1934 to 1937, the
optimum output of his engine by injecting liquid
oxygen and petroleum ether into his graphite combustion
chamber. To deal with problems related to
the use of graphite, REP fabricated a nozzle throat
from tungsten which he smelted in a high-frequency
furnace also specially designed by him for this purpose.
For these works, REP obtained a small contract
from the Direction des ELudes et Fabrications
d'Armements, which assigned Ing^nieur General
Desmazieres to supervise the execution of the
project.
In 1937, for dignitaries visiting REP's laboratory,
the engine operated 60 seconds without incident,
with a thrust of 125 kg. The engine itself met the
qualification standard but the subsidy to enable
REP to construct the gyroscopic stabilization device
that he considered necessary for his rocket was then
refused. REP agreed to study a project for a finned
rocket, without gyroscopic guidance, but he baptized
this the "NIC" for "n'importe comment" and
subsequently abandoned this project. The outbreak
of the 1939 War put an end to REP's activities in
astronautics.
Projects Scorned by Authorities
REP was no doubt the first to recognize the
danger of rockets as weapons capable of intercontinental
ranges, and this worried him. At first
he thought it preferable to remain silent. But the
publicity given by the press to his 1927 work,
"L'Exploration par fusees de la tres haute atmosphere
et la possibility des voyages interplan^taires,"
attracted a large correspondence from which he
learned of works unknown to him: Die Rakete zu
den Planetenraumen by Hermann Oberth (1923); 33
Die Erreichbarkeit der Himmelskorper, by Walter
Hohmann (1925);** and Der Vorstoss in den Weltenraum,
by Max Valier (1925). 35
He began to feel that it had become his duty to
inform the government of his results, of the potential
dangers and the means of developing methods
for sending thousands of tons of projectiles several
hundred miles in a few hours. Using the calculations
he had first made in 1920 with two of his
collaborators, Seal and Marcus, he decided to prepare
a secret report which he sent on 20 May 1928
to his friend, General Ferris, who forwarded it to
his chiefs. 30 This theoretical report demonstrated
that it was already possible to attain a range of
2267 kilometers with an exhaust velocity of 2667
meters per second (REP recognized later that this
estimate was optimistic for the time). In addition,
REP made a detailed study for the particular case
of a rocket of 600-kilometer range, specifying all the
mass ratios, and notably the ballistic yield (the
ratio between the weight of the necessary propellant
and that of the projectile for this range), both for
the mixtures of gasoline and nitrogen peroxide that
he had taken as examples and for the special solid
propellant used by Professor Goddard.
The report ended with economic studies comparing
rocket and aerial bombings and concluded that
long-range rockets would be the artillery of the
future.
After some months, the dossier was returned: it
had aroused absolutely no interest!
No one at the time considered such works apt to
give useful results and the scientist was unable to
overcome the inertia of government officials who
often systematically ignored anything coming from
him.
In 1931 the government nevertheless assigned a
lieutenant of the technical section of the artillery,
J. J. Barre, to work in REP's laboratory. Barre had
been collaborating privately with REP since 1927
and had helped with the calculations for the
memorandum. This assignment lasted only one
year, because it was not considered that "a study of
rockets is worthy of the activity of an officer." In
spite of this precise and prophetic memorandum,
REP did not get the subsidies necessary to carry
out the studies he had proposed.
The situation was different in Germany, where
similar work led to the V-2 rockets. It should
nevertheless be noted that in 1931 Andr^-Louis