THE NEXT WONDER

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 139, 9 December 1935, Page 6

THE NEXT WONDER

A ROCKET 'PLANE

CLAIMS OF SCIENTIST

Recently, Colonel Charles Lindbergh and Mr. Harry F. Guggenheim set out on a secret mission, writes John England in the "Cape Times." From Roswell, New Mexico, they went by car into^ the lonely countryside. They drew up before;a large lonelyhouse, flank-ed-by even larger /outbuildings. Here they alighted and remained for two days.

When a scientist, of high standing makes a claim that may, if substantiated, revolutionise transport, • men like Lindbergh . and =■ Guggenheim are prepared to listen. And Professor R. H. Goddard has; made just such a claim. Twenty-seven years ago this tall, taciturn laboratory scholar had said: "One day I will construct a machine that will travel at seven hundred miles an hour fifty miles above the earth's surface." . :

For two days Colonel Lindbergh and the financier pored over the professor's charts;, watched. his working models, checked his calculations. Then Lindbergh said: "It's sound," and Guggenheim just nodded and said: "OK. You can have the cash." NEXT YEAR. For the next year Professor Goddard will be working day and night in the construction,-:.of the most fantastic, the niost 'amazing machine ever contrived 'by man. He will shape in his secret workshops a: fullscale rocket aeroplane, and if it does all that he ; claims, it will do—all that his famous backers ■ believe it will do—then all ideas of, speed will be changed. We shall have-reached the age of projectile-travel.

The idea of rocket-flight is not new. In fact, it is surprisingly, old. Just three centuries ago Bishop Wilkins of Chichester, foresaw the possibility and wrote a romance of rocket travel to the moon. Since then other writers -Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, and Edgar Allan Poe—have shared this dream But it was no more than a dream, until the scientific men got down to work out the many intricate scientific problems involved.

The mam problem confronting the rocket-engineer is the problem of lifting the machine above pull of the earth's gravitation. Professor Goddard set himself to solve; this, the main part of his task. He built rockets twelve feet long,, and sent• them off by using a high explosive mixture of liquid oxygen and petrol. These rockets attained "■. a speed of 700 miles an hour. ! , ," , Five years ago no engineer would have believed that-300-miles an hour the speed attained ■by Sir Malcolm Campbell, was within the realnis of possibility. Today many-are'sceptical as to the possibility of speed nearer 1000 miles an. hour by air! But Professor Goddard'is not among them; nor is Colonel-Lindbergh. PROBLEM OF: CONTROL. After the initial problem of clearing, the air envelope of the earth has been solved, the velocity' of the rocket aeroplane is almost without limits. For where there is no air there is no resistance. .-' .:,■ '.-I:.:-.-. \ But How, asks"the/piain man,.could such a-machine be directed,/and how could itiXomei'doym^'v'vrs^';l: :i; .

Among>the .flevi£es^hQw.n .toSColonel Lindbergh and M£'^Guggenheim the other day was Professor Goddard's invention for controlling his rocketplanes by gyroscope. It has been tried out on his twelve-foot models: and it

works. It will work, so he is convinced onm? full-scale commercial machine. The problem of descent is less difflc.u" than it appears to be at first sight. A machine travelling through space at say 700 mi i es an 6 hour | 0 miles above earth, would be braked as it dived into the air-envelope. The air resistance would" increase as it neared earth, and thus automatically reduce' its speed.

The projected rocket-planes will be equipped with folding metal wineThese will be used when the landing field is visible.

Will Professor Goddard be first in the field with his machine? It is possible that he will, but by no means certain, for the idea of rocket travel is one that has gripped and dominated the minds and imagination of more than one distinguished engineer in our time. IN OTHER LANDS. For example, Professor Oberth the German scientist, is now working on a machine on somewhat similar lines His machine will weigh twenty tons and carry three tons of fuel. It is to have accommodation for ten passengers. He claims that it will be capable of high-air travel at speeds before which that promised by the American seem like a snail's pace. Professor Oberth does not talk of hundreds of miles an hour, but of seven miles a second.

In France, too, another member of that small select band known as the Inter-Planetary Society, is working on a fantastic air machine. The French machine, estimated to cost £400,000 is designed to have two living apartS e?n^'n a C? ntrol chaml >er. and a speed or 3000 miles an hour. ■ As one might expect from men of »«* imaginative range, the idea of rocket travel about the earth is not enough. Given the initial send-off say these scientific seers, we could fr^m the'SV?hrmooS y SSaled ' w n flnvhUS' i lter yearsoJ imaginative fiction, the vast and awe-inspir-ing project for inter-planetary travel :S^ rnT fi hc eUSrSl rS °f Few people will take these projects seriously. Buf then few took S e£ wSV he *#«*'■ ot the B^S M™* ° + r *fef *** exP«toents of Marconi to throw sound aero** th» world without visible mean?.