FIRST STEPS TOWARD SPACE - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

NUMBER 10 63
FIGURE 5.—Modification of rocket design in, now classic, configuration:
motor at rear, surmounted by liquid oxygen and
gasoline propellant tanks. Rocket is on exhibit at Smithsonian
Institution.
although a thrust of more than 200 pounds was
obtained, the injector head burned through. 49
To reduce costs and construction effort Goddard
now turned to a medium-sized rocket design of
thrust equivalent to about 40 pounds. Components
were simply designed and easily replaced. Test work
on rockets of this general size continued for nearly
three years. Two more flights were achieved on
26 December 1928 50 and 17 July 1929. 51 On the
latter flight a thermometer and barometer, together
with a camera to record data at zenith were carried
as payload. 52
All these flights were conducted on a farm at
nearby Auburn, Massachusetts. Because the loud
noise resulted in unwelcome publicity 53 and
alarmed local authorities, 54 test work was shifted to
the U. S. Army artillery range at Camp Devens,
Massachusetts. 55 Once again the Smithsonian paved
the way with letters to the Army that secured the
necessary permission. 50
At this point substantial financial support became
available from Daniel Guggenheim, a wealthy and
philanthropic New Yorker who had been supporting
development of aeronautics at the request of
his son Harry F. Guggenheim. Colonel Charles A.
Lindbergh had personally visited Goddard in November
1929 and had been impressed by potential
developments of rocket power. 57 At Lindbergh's
suggestion, 58 Guggenheim agreed to sponsor Goddard's
efforts. 59 Officials of the DuPont Company
served as additional technical advisors to Guggenheim.
Meanwhile, the Carnegie Institution in Washington
in December 1929 advanced $5,000 to the
Smithsonian for Goddard's continuing research. 60
With the Guggenheim support, Goddard was
able to increase significantly the size and scope of
his work. 01 Moving to Mescalero Ranch at Roswell,
New Mexico, 61 privacy and adequate supporting
facilities permitted him to devote full effort to
developing the many elements of sounding-rocket
design which he had conceived. Such items included
gyro stabilization, steering-jet vanes in the rocket
exhaust as well as aerodynamic flaps, gas generators
and turbopumps for propellants, improved injector
heads, film cooling of combustion chambers, valving,
igniters, launch controls, and parachute recovery.
62 Goddard recognized that although Abbot
would continue as a member of the Guggenheim
advisory committee his work would no longer
be under the direct support of the Smithsonian
Institution. To Abbot he wrote:
I am deeply appreciative of the support of the Smithsonian
has given this rocket work, from its start as a bare idea with
little experimental verification, in 1917. I am so particularly
grateful for your interest, encouragement, and far-sightedness.
I feel that I cannot overestimate the value of your backing,
at times when hardly anyone else in the world could see
anything of importance in the undertaking.63
As it turned out, however, Abbot continued his
close and friendly relationship until Goddard's
untimely death on 10 August 1945. For example,
when Goddard's basic 1914 patents were about to
expire in 1931, 01 Abbot obtained sponsorship for
a special bill in Congress. 65 Military support of
such a bill was necessary. However, the Army
Ordnance Corps declared that "no immediate or
near future use of rockets for ordnance purposes
seems probable." 6G The Navy, just as shortsightedly,
declared that if rocket development were
more public greater progress in national defense