FIRST STEPS TOWARD SPACE - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

288 SMITHSONIAN ANNALS OF FLIGHT
Chemical Construction in the USSR (Osoaviakhim).
It should be noted that the greater part of GIRD's
funds was obtained not only through the efforts of
its leaders but also because these efforts met with
complete understanding on the part of M. N.
Tukhachevsky.
Thus, the establishment of GIRD as an organization
to develop rocket technology was due to the
rise of science and technology in the USSR. Several
favorable factors influenced its development, but it
was the members of GIRD who, by their hard work
and dedication, brought about fulfillment of their
historic mission as pioneers of Soviet liquid-propellant
rockets.
The Moscow Group for Study of Jet Propulsion
(MosGIRD) was established in August 1931. The
decision to organize the group was preceded by
S. P. Korolyev's work in creating a rocket-propelled
aircraft with the OR-2 liquid-propellant engine
designed by F. A. Tsander.
GIRD conducted a large-scale publicity campaign
and on 13 November 1931, the Leningrad GIRD
(LenGIRD) was formed. Subsequently OSOAVIA­
KHIM began to found GIRDs in other areas.
The Moscow GIRD became the central group
(CGIRD), and directed all the other GIRD's. Early
in 1932, CGIRD established courses, the first in the
world, on jet propulsion, which contributed to
training and education of rocket engineers in the
USSR.
On 3 March 1932, at a meeting with Tukhachevskiy
as chairman, the CGIRD leaders presented a
report on jet propulsion problems. As a result a
decision was adopted to establish the Rocket Research
Institute, and to allocate to RNII the necessary
funds. In April 1932, the decision was made to
create the CGIRD Experimental Rocket Plant. S. P.
Korolyev was appointed plant director, chief of
CGIRD, and chairman of its technical council.
The CGIRD and local GIRD's had been open to
all rocket and space-flight enthusiasts. 2 However,
the Experimental Rocket Plant of GIRD accepted
only specialists having the necessary background
and training in rocketry. At first, all were voluntary
workers, but later, as individuals became involved
in the work, they were accepted on the GIRD staff.
The funds allocated did not limit the work of
GIRD to the field of rocket aircraft, thus enabling
GIRD to begin work on a number of concepts suggested
partly by S. P. Korolyev and F. A. Tsander,
partly by M. K. Tikhonravov, and by Yu. A.
Pobedonostsev, who came to work in GIRD.
By the latter half of 1932, after a great many
organizational difficulties had been solved, such as
the search for premises and equipment and the
arrangement of supply sources for materials, the
GIRD plant became a research laboratory having
four design teams and manufacturing workshops
to serve them. The first team was headed by F. A.
Tsander, the second by M. K. Tikhonravov, the
third by Yu. A. Pobedonostsev, and the fourth
by S. P. Korolyev. The concepts and projects developed
in GIRD carried serial numbers preceded by
zero (0), when the number was a single digit. Altogether,
ten design and research projects were designated
for development by GIRD.
It is my privilege to tell you about the work of
the GIRD second team of which I was scientific
leader. Our team worked on the following projects:
1. Project 03, the RDA-1 engine, with pump-fed
propellants, designed for a rocket aircraft.
2. Project 05, A flight rocket for installation of the
nitric-acid engine ORM-50 designed by the
Leningrad Gas Dynamics Laboratory (GDL).
3. Project 07, A flight with a liquid oxygen/kerosene
engine.
4. Project 09, A flight rocket using a semisolid
(hybrid) fuel and liquid oxygen.
During the work on Project 03, attention was
concentrated on the development of the liquidoxygen-driven
pump. The suggested fuel for this
100-kg-thrust engine was benzine. The pump was
designed to operate on oxygen vapor created by
evaporation of a portion of the oxygen in the tank.
The majority of the oxygen was fed into the
rocket engine from the pressure generated by its
own vaporization in the tank. In 1932 the working
drawings of the pump had been made, but actual
fabrication of the pump was delayed because it had
to be constructed in facilities other than those of
GIRD.
Subsequently, the work was transferred to RNII,
where a test stand for the pump was constructed.
However, even here the manufacture of the pump
could not be completed. By this time it was apparent
that development of the combustion chamber
would prove to be very difficult, and all efforts were
concentrated on this problem. The work on the
pump was temporarily stopped.
The 07 Project was the first flight rocket program