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Anyone wonder why china has made enormous progress on space and ICBM technologies? especially the progress on Hypersonic Glide Vehicle(HGV) in recent years? China never lacks genius and knowledges.
Qian Xuesen(钱学森), or Hsue-Shen Tsien or H.S. Tsien used in USA(11 December 1911 – 31 October 2009) a Chinese scientist, born in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province. Qian graduated from The High School Affiliated to Beijing Normal University, then graduated from Chiao Tung University (now spelled Jiao Tong) in Shanghai in 1934 and received a degree in mechanical engineering, with an emphasis on railroad administration; he then spent an internship at Nanchang Air Force Base, then sent by chinese government to U.S. Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study aerospace engineering, received a master and doctorate's degree and later served as Professor at both Cal Tech and MIT. ( he is probably THE youngest professor in MIT history)
Qian Xuesen(R) discusses with F.Marble(L) and another colleague when he teaches at Caltech in 1949.
Giving graduate lectures in Cal Tech (the waverider trajectory）
Qian earned his doctorate from Caltech in 1939 with a thesis on slender body theory at high speeds, and established a reputation as one of the leading rocket scientists in the United States and being one of the
pioneers of US ballistic missles program.
The famous Kármán–Tsien equation (Kármán–Tsien rule), the basic principle of Waverider HGV.
Waverider: WaveRider - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
After WWII, served under von Kármán as a consultant to the USAAF, 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.
Left to right: Ludwig Prandtl (German scientist), Qian Xuesen, Theodore von Kármán.
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." he was one of the of the founders of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, During this time, he closely worked with Von Karman on designing an intercontinental space plane.Tsien's fundamental theoretical work on this concept lead to him being called the 'Father of the Dyna-soar' (X-20 Dyna-Soar)(The world's first HGV Concept), which itself would later influence the development of the American Space Shuttle.
During the Second Red Scare of the 1950s(in the height of the McCarthyism), he and Robert Oppenheimer, along with many other scientist were persecuted by the United States government because of suspected ties to communists, even though the ONLY evidence against him was someone who SAYS he saw the mans name on some communist list.
Qian had a conversation with the Secretary of the Navy Dan A. Kimball, whom Qian knew on a personal basis, in August, 1950. After Qian told him of the allegations Kimball said, "Hell, I don't think you're a Communist" at which point Qian indicated that he intended to leave the country, saying "I'm Chinese. I don't want to build weapons to kill my countrymen. It's that simple." Kimball then said "I won't let you out of the country."he was then arrested and jailed at Terminal Island for 5 years.
During this time he lived under constant surveillance with the permission to teach without any research (classified) duties. During his incarceration, Qian received support from his colleagues at Caltech, including the institute's president Lee DuBridge, who flew to Washington to argue Qian's case. Caltech appointed attorney Grant Cooper to defend Qian.
The ban on Qian's leaving was lifted on 4 August 1955 and Qian resigned from Caltech shortly thereafter. Qian departed from Los Angeles aboard the Grover Cleveland in September 1955 amidst rumors that this was a swap for 11 U.S. airmen held captive by China since the end of the Korean War. Under Secretary Kimball, who had tried to keep Qian in the U.S., commented on the affair to say:"It was the stupidest thing this country ever did. He was no more a Communist than I was, and we forced him to go."
Qian had a successful career in China, leading and becoming the father of the Chinese missile program with the construction of China's Dongfeng ballistic missiles and the Long March space rockets. He almost single handedly set up China's aerospace industry.
In 1979 Qian was awarded Caltech's Distinguished Alumni Award. In the early 1990s the filing cabinets containing Qian's research work were offered to him by Caltech. Most of these works became the foundation for the Qian Library at Xi'an Jiaotong University while the rest went to the Institute of Mechanics. Qian eventually received his award from Caltech in 2001, and with the help of his friend Frank Marble brought it to his home in a widely covered ceremony.
In December 2001, receiving Caltech’s Distinguished Alumni Award. From left, Tsien, Ora Lee Marble, Frank Marble, and Tsien’s wife, Tsiang Ying.
Qian was also invited to visit the US by AIAA after the normalization of Sino-US relationship, but he refused the invitation, having wanted a formal apology for his detention. In a 2002 published reminiscence, Marble stated that he believed that Qian had “lost faith in the American government” but that he had “always had very warm feelings for the American people.”
The PRC government launched its manned space program in 1992 and used Qian's research as the basis for the Long March rocket which successfully launched the Shenzhou V mission in October 2003. The elderly Qian was able to watch China's first manned space mission on television from his hospital bed. In 1999, the CPC Central Committee, the State Council, Central Military Commission decided to grant him "missiles plus one satellite Merit Medal." In October 2006 was "China's aerospace industry for 50 years the highest honor award.
ex president Hu jingtao visiting Qian xuesen.
He is the cousin of the mechanical engineer Hsue-Chu Tsien, and his nephew is the 2008 Nobel Prize in chemistry winner Roger Y. Tsien. Asteroid no 3763 was named Qianxuesen.
In 2008, he was named Aviation Week and Space Technology Person of the Year. This selection is not intended as an honour but is given to the person judged to have the greatest impact on aviation in the past year.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."
In 2008, China Central Television named Qian as one of the eleven most inspiring people in China. In July 2009, the Omega Alpha Association named Qian (H. S. Tsien) one of four Honorary Members in the international systems engineering honor society. He died at the age of 97 on October 31, 2009 in Beijing.
Science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, in his novel 2010: Odyssey Two, named a Chinese spaceship after him.
Reference:Qian Xuesen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Chinese film production Qian Xue Sen, directed by Zhang Jianya, stars Chen Kun as Qian, was released on 11 December 2011 in both Asia and North America.
The movie with English sub:
Qian Xuesen(钱学森), or Hsue-Shen Tsien or H.S. Tsien used in USA(11 December 1911 – 31 October 2009) a Chinese scientist, born in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province. Qian graduated from The High School Affiliated to Beijing Normal University, then graduated from Chiao Tung University (now spelled Jiao Tong) in Shanghai in 1934 and received a degree in mechanical engineering, with an emphasis on railroad administration; he then spent an internship at Nanchang Air Force Base, then sent by chinese government to U.S. Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study aerospace engineering, received a master and doctorate's degree and later served as Professor at both Cal Tech and MIT. ( he is probably THE youngest professor in MIT history)
Qian Xuesen(R) discusses with F.Marble(L) and another colleague when he teaches at Caltech in 1949.
Giving graduate lectures in Cal Tech (the waverider trajectory）
Qian earned his doctorate from Caltech in 1939 with a thesis on slender body theory at high speeds, and established a reputation as one of the leading rocket scientists in the United States and being one of the
pioneers of US ballistic missles program.
The famous Kármán–Tsien equation (Kármán–Tsien rule), the basic principle of Waverider HGV.
Waverider: WaveRider - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
After WWII, served under von Kármán as a consultant to the USAAF, 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.
Left to right: Ludwig Prandtl (German scientist), Qian Xuesen, Theodore von Kármán.
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." he was one of the of the founders of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, During this time, he closely worked with Von Karman on designing an intercontinental space plane.Tsien's fundamental theoretical work on this concept lead to him being called the 'Father of the Dyna-soar' (X-20 Dyna-Soar)(The world's first HGV Concept), which itself would later influence the development of the American Space Shuttle.
During the Second Red Scare of the 1950s(in the height of the McCarthyism), he and Robert Oppenheimer, along with many other scientist were persecuted by the United States government because of suspected ties to communists, even though the ONLY evidence against him was someone who SAYS he saw the mans name on some communist list.
Qian had a conversation with the Secretary of the Navy Dan A. Kimball, whom Qian knew on a personal basis, in August, 1950. After Qian told him of the allegations Kimball said, "Hell, I don't think you're a Communist" at which point Qian indicated that he intended to leave the country, saying "I'm Chinese. I don't want to build weapons to kill my countrymen. It's that simple." Kimball then said "I won't let you out of the country."he was then arrested and jailed at Terminal Island for 5 years.
During this time he lived under constant surveillance with the permission to teach without any research (classified) duties. During his incarceration, Qian received support from his colleagues at Caltech, including the institute's president Lee DuBridge, who flew to Washington to argue Qian's case. Caltech appointed attorney Grant Cooper to defend Qian.
The ban on Qian's leaving was lifted on 4 August 1955 and Qian resigned from Caltech shortly thereafter. Qian departed from Los Angeles aboard the Grover Cleveland in September 1955 amidst rumors that this was a swap for 11 U.S. airmen held captive by China since the end of the Korean War. Under Secretary Kimball, who had tried to keep Qian in the U.S., commented on the affair to say:"It was the stupidest thing this country ever did. He was no more a Communist than I was, and we forced him to go."
Qian had a successful career in China, leading and becoming the father of the Chinese missile program with the construction of China's Dongfeng ballistic missiles and the Long March space rockets. He almost single handedly set up China's aerospace industry.
In 1979 Qian was awarded Caltech's Distinguished Alumni Award. In the early 1990s the filing cabinets containing Qian's research work were offered to him by Caltech. Most of these works became the foundation for the Qian Library at Xi'an Jiaotong University while the rest went to the Institute of Mechanics. Qian eventually received his award from Caltech in 2001, and with the help of his friend Frank Marble brought it to his home in a widely covered ceremony.
In December 2001, receiving Caltech’s Distinguished Alumni Award. From left, Tsien, Ora Lee Marble, Frank Marble, and Tsien’s wife, Tsiang Ying.
Qian was also invited to visit the US by AIAA after the normalization of Sino-US relationship, but he refused the invitation, having wanted a formal apology for his detention. In a 2002 published reminiscence, Marble stated that he believed that Qian had “lost faith in the American government” but that he had “always had very warm feelings for the American people.”
The PRC government launched its manned space program in 1992 and used Qian's research as the basis for the Long March rocket which successfully launched the Shenzhou V mission in October 2003. The elderly Qian was able to watch China's first manned space mission on television from his hospital bed. In 1999, the CPC Central Committee, the State Council, Central Military Commission decided to grant him "missiles plus one satellite Merit Medal." In October 2006 was "China's aerospace industry for 50 years the highest honor award.
ex president Hu jingtao visiting Qian xuesen.
He is the cousin of the mechanical engineer Hsue-Chu Tsien, and his nephew is the 2008 Nobel Prize in chemistry winner Roger Y. Tsien. Asteroid no 3763 was named Qianxuesen.
In 2008, he was named Aviation Week and Space Technology Person of the Year. This selection is not intended as an honour but is given to the person judged to have the greatest impact on aviation in the past year.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."
In 2008, China Central Television named Qian as one of the eleven most inspiring people in China. In July 2009, the Omega Alpha Association named Qian (H. S. Tsien) one of four Honorary Members in the international systems engineering honor society. He died at the age of 97 on October 31, 2009 in Beijing.
Science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, in his novel 2010: Odyssey Two, named a Chinese spaceship after him.
Reference:Qian Xuesen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Chinese film production Qian Xue Sen, directed by Zhang Jianya, stars Chen Kun as Qian, was released on 11 December 2011 in both Asia and North America.
The movie with English sub:
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Qian xuesen's legacies： 
