Robert H. Goddard - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Robert Hutchings Goddard (October 5, 1882 – August 10, 1945) was an American
professor,
physicist, and
inventor who is credited with creating and building the world's first
liquid-fueled rocket,
[1][2] which he successfully launched on March 16, 1926. Goddard and his team launched 34 rockets
[3] between 1926 and 1941, achieving altitudes as high as 2.6 km (1.6 mi) and speeds as high as 885 km/h (550 mph).
[3]
Goddard's work as both theorist and engineer anticipated many of the developments that were to make spaceflight possible.
[4] He has been called the man who ushered in the
Space Age.
[5]:xiii Two of Goddard's 214 patented inventions — a multi-stage rocket (1914), and a liquid-fuel rocket (1914) — were important milestones toward spaceflight.
[6] His 1919
monograph A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes is considered one of the classic texts of 20th-century rocket science.
[7][8] Goddard successfully applied
three-axis control,
gyroscopes and
steerable thrust to rockets, to effectively control their flight.
Goddard's military rocket
Not all of Goddard's early work was geared towards space travel. As the United States entered World War I in 1917, the country's universities began to lend their services to the war effort. Goddard believed his rocket research could be applied to many different military applications, including mobile artillery, field weapons and naval
torpedoes. He made proposals to the Navy and Army. No record exists of any interest by the Navy to Goddard's inquiry. However, Army Ordnance was quite interested, and Goddard met several times with Army personnel.
[13]:89
During this time, Goddard was also contacted by a civilian industrialist in Worcester about the possibility of manufacturing rockets for the military. However, as the businessman's enthusiasm grew, so did Goddard's suspicion. Talks eventually broke down as Goddard began to fear his work might be appropriated by the business. However, an Army Signal Corps officer tried to make Goddard cooperate, but he was called off by General George Squier of the Signal Corps who had been contacted by Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Charles Walcott.
[13]:89–91 Goddard became leery of working with corporations and was careful to secure patents to "protect his ideas."
[13]:152 These events led to the Signal Corps sponsoring Goddard's work during World War I.
[13]:91
Goddard proposed to the Army an idea for a tube-based rocket launcher as a light infantry weapon. The launcher concept became the precursor to the
bazooka.
[13]:92 The rocket-powered recoil-free weapon was the brainchild of Dr. Goddard as a side project (under Army contract) of his work on rocket propulsion. Goddard, during his
tenure at
Clark University, and working at
Mount Wilson Observatory for security reasons, designed a tube-fired rocket for military use during World War I. He and his co-worker, Dr. Clarence Hickman, successfully demonstrated his rocket to the
U.S. Army Signal Corps at
Aberdeen Proving Ground,
Maryland, on November 6, 1918, using two music stands for a launch platform, but the
Compiègne Armistice was signed only five days later, and further development was discontinued as World War I ended.
[31]
The delay in the development of the bazooka and other weapons was a result of Goddard's serious bout with tuberculosis—the long recovery required. Goddard continued to be a part-time consultant to the U.S. Government at
Indian Head, Maryland,
[13]:121 until 1923, but his focus had turned to other research involving rocket propulsion, including work with liquid fuels and liquid oxygen.
Later, the former Clark University researcher, Dr. Clarence Hickman, and Army officers Col. Leslie Skinner and Lt. Edward Uhl continued Goddard's work on the bazooka. A
shaped-charge warhead was attached to the rocket, leading to the tank-killing weapon used in World War II and to many other powerful rocket weapons.
[13]:305
Although Goddard had brought his work in rocketry to the attention of the United States Army, between World Wars, he was rebuffed, since the Army largely failed to grasp the military application of large rockets and said there was no money for new experimental weapons.[13]:297 German military intelligence, by contrast, had paid attention to Goddard's work. The Goddards noticed the some mail had been opened, and some mailed reports had gone missing. An accredited military attaché to the US, Friedrich von Boetticher, sent a four-page report to the Abwehr in 1936, and the spy Gustav Guellich sent a mixture of facts and made-up information, claiming to have visited Roswell and witnessed a launch. The Abwehr was very interested and responded with more questions about Goddard's work.[62]:77[16]:227–8 Guellich's reports did include information about fuel mixtures and the important concept of fuel-curtain cooling,[63]:39–41 but thereafter the Germans received very little information about Goddard.