FIRST STEPS TOWARD SPACE - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

NUMBER 10 275
thrust engines. A fortnight later (27 October 1921),
he made the following entry: "Writing of the
complete rocket theory should be started." 12
Evidently associated with the same record and
dated 23 October is the outline of an article entitled
"The Rocket," 13 in which he suggested considering
a number of problems of reaction-propulsion flights
in free space as well as within the atmosphere.
In the same manuscript, Tsiolkovskiy for the
first time poses the problem of transportation using
an "air cushion." Thus far, biographers of Tsiolkovskiy
have believed that his interest in the problem
of transportation using an air cushion arose in
1926, when he was working on the manuscript
"Gas Friction," 14 and that it found expression in
his work "Air Resistance and an Express Train,"
published in 1927.
It now appears that Tsiolkovskiy already was
aware of this principle and clearly understood it in
1921, tiiis being evident from the above-mentioned
work "Extension of Man into Outer Space," where,
in the section "Rapid Translational Motion on the
Earth," he points out that "gliding on a liquid or
a gas," (Figure 8) as one of the possible means of
movement, when the movement of ground (or
water) transportation is achieved as the result of
gliding of a carriage on an elastic air cushion
created by powerful engines. He mentioned that
"With polished surfaces, the gas layer between such
surfaces may be very thin. This resembles flight." 15
Later on, the air cushion idea found further
development in his works "An Express Train" and
"General Conditions of Transportation."
In conclusion, I would like to trace how the
attitude toward Tsiolkovskiy has changed over the
years. Before the October Revolution he was considered
to be an eccentric, an unsuccessful but
gifted self-educated man without a degree. After
the revolution, this attitude underwent radical
changes. He was elected a member of the Socialist
Academy, was allotted a personal pension, and had
the opportunity to set aside teaching and devote
himself completely to research. However, he devoted
his activities to the development of aviation
at that time. The State allotted a personal pension
to him, "in view of the great merits of the scientistinventor,
an expert in aviation and aeronautics."
No mention whatever was made about his research
in rocket engineering and interplanetary travel.
More than ten years passed. K. E. Tsiolkovskiy's
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