FIRST STEPS TOWARD SPACE - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

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efforts on a manned flying machine with a rocket
engine, which was a far more expensive and laborconsuming
project, were focused on the rocketplane
laboratory. The experience obtained while
working on the RP-1 rocket glider and testing unmanned
rocket gliders became useful here. Korolyev
came to the conclusion that the "flying-wing"
scheme should not necessarily be used for a rocketengine
flight, that all attempts to adjust the existing
gliders to liquid-fuel jet engines made the task
unnecessarily cumbersome, and that, therefore, a
normal glider specially designed for the purpose
was wanted.
In his step-by-step approach to the problem,
Korolyev designed, on his own initiative, the
double-seated SK-9 glider, which was presented in
1935 to the All-Union Conference of Glider Builders
in the Crimea. Unaware of the designer's plans,
the delegates were puzzled by the glider: it seemed
too sturdy, the wing surface was comparatively
small, the second pilot's seat was uncomfortable.
All these apparent drawbacks turned to advantage
when rocket-fuel tanks replaced the second seat and
the increased sturdiness allowed for speeds during
a rocket flight unattainable by conventional gliders.
While in the Crimea, during prolonged aircrafttowed
flights and in the course of extensive summer
tests performed mostly by himself, Korolyev managed
to solve all the problems he considered to be
the first stage in the development of a rocket glider.
The SK-9 having passed all-around tests, the
Technical Council of the RNII, on the basis of this
glider and the work program for the future, discussed
Korolyev's design of an experimental rocket
plane. It was decided to put the rocket plane on a
priority basis for 1937." In that year the SK-9 was
brought to the Institute, and a propeling installation
with an ORM-65 rocket engine was mounted
on it. The machine, designated RP-318, had to
serve as an experimental laboratory for testing and
elaborating ideas to be put into the design of a
future high-altitude rocket plane. Firing tests of the
propelling plant, mounted on the glider, started
toward the end of the year. There were dozens of
them.
In February 1938, in a paper written jointly with
Ye.S. Shchetnikov and entitled "Research Work
on a Rocket Plane," Korolyev for the first time
defined the purpose of rocket aircraft, delineated
optimal regions of their use, and formulated the
major goals for the future. The principles of a
fighter-interceptor and an experimental aircraft for
studying the stratosphere and the aerodynamics of
high speeds were scientifically expounded. A fourstage
project for such an aircraft was proposed:
1, The initial variant, to utilize the results obtained
in the RNII earlier (when starting from the earth,
it was to reach an altitude of 9 km, and starting
from a height of 8 km, an altitude of 25 km); 2, a
modified variant, designed for a more prolonged
flight; 3, a record variant; and 4, a prospective
variant. The fourth rocket plane, when carried by
a mother aircraft, was to reach in the rocket flight
an altitude of 53 km. The project had many features
common to the experimental aircraft of today.
In 1939 the SK-9 got a new rocket engine, the
RDA-1-150, and on 28 February 1940 pilot V.P.
Fyedorov performed the first flight in a rocket
plane.
After successful flights of the RP-318, the Institute's
primary attention turned to studies on the
rocket plane. They also drew the attention of other
research agencies, and by 1942 the first rocket
fighter BI-1, a joint undertaking of the RNII and
the aviation industry under the guidance of V.F.
Bolkhovitinov, performed its first successful flight.
Thus it follows that S.P. Korolyev's part in starting
and developing Soviet rocketry, which is the
avant-garde of world rocket engineering, is very
great. Great also is his contribution to the development
and popularization of rocket engineering, to
the education of rocketeers. He was a distinguished
organizer and manager, research worker, and designer—in
fact the leading specialist in the development
of rocket-propelled aircraft. All these qualities
predetermined his outstanding role in the development
of rocketry in its decisive stage, i.e., in
the 1950s and 1960s, and Sergei Pavlovitch
Korolyev performed his part brilliantly. In the
history of the progress of humanity, his name
stands as a founder of practical cosmonautics.
NOTES
1. Samolyet [Aircraft], 1931, no. 11-12, p. 36.
2. Arkhiv AN SSSR [Archives, USSR Academy of Sciences],
f. 796, op. 3, d. 36,1. 271.
3. S. P. Korolyev. Raketniy polet v stratosfere. Moscow,
1934.
4. Arkhiv AN SSSR, f. 555, op. 3, d. 152, 1. 10-11 ob.
5. Arkhiv AN SSSR f. 555, op. 4, d. 652, 1. 15-15 ob.