a
scientist who made important contributions to the
missile and space programs of both the
United States and
People's Republic of China.
In 1943, Qian and two others in the Caltech rocketry group drafted the first document to use the name
Jet Propulsion Laboratory; it was a proposal to the Army for developing missiles in response to Germany's
V-2 rocket. This led to the
Private A, which flew in 1944, and later the
Corporal, the
WAC Corporal, and other designs.
After
World War II he served under
von Kármán as a consultant to the
United States Army Air Forces, and commissioned with the assimilated rank of
colonel. Von Kármán and Tsien both were sent by the Army to
Germany to investigate the progress of wartime aerodynamics research. Qian investigated research facilities and interviewed German scientists including
Wernher von Braun and Rudolph Hermann. Von Kármán wrote of Qian, “At the age of 36, he was an undisputed genius whose work was providing an enormous impetus to advances in high-speed aerodynamics and jet propulsion.” The American journal
Aviation Week & Space Technology would name Qian its Person of the Year in 2007, and comment on his interrogation of von Braun, "No one then knew that the father of the future U.S. space program was being quizzed by the father of the future Chinese space program."
During this time, Colonel Qian worked on designing an intercontinental space plane. His work would inspire the
X-20 Dyna-Soar, which itself would later influence the development of the American
Space Shuttle.
In 1949, upon the recommendation of von Kármán, Qian became the first director of the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Jet Propulsion Center at Caltech.
