Posted on 04/02/2012 10:25:16 AM PDT by Borges
One of the greatest rocket scientists of all time would have been 100 years old on Friday, and his legacy is being celebrated in his adopted home town of Huntsville, Ala.
Wernher von Braun was a German engineer who came to the United States at the end of World War II after working for the German war effort designing the V-2 combat rocket. Despite his past and affiliation with the Nazi party, von Braun went on to build the rockets that would carry U.S. astronauts to the moon and establish America as a leader in space for decades to come. He became a United States citizen in 1955.
"He was very unique," recalled American aerospace engineer David Christensen, who worked with von Braun when he arrived in the United States. "I don't know of another individual, frankly, that's had those capabilities, either then or now, that could do the things he did."
Christensen, who will turn 80 on April 7, will speak along with others who knew von Braun at a University of Alabama commemorative event on Friday in Huntsville.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Gather round while I sing you of Wernher von Braun
A man whose allegiance is ruled by expedience
Call him a Nazi, he won’t even frown
“Ha, Nazi schmazi,” says Wernher von Braun
Don’t say that he’s hypocritical
Say rather that he’s apolitical
“Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down
That’s not my department,” says Wernher von Braun
Some have harsh words for this man of renown
But some think our attitude should be one of gratitude
Like the widows and cripples in old London town
Who owe their large pensions to Wernher von Braun
You too may be a big hero
Once you’ve learned to count backwards to zero
“In German oder English I know how to count down
Und I’m learning Chinese,” says Wernher von Braun
— Tom Lehrer
“Despite his past and affiliation with the Nazi party...”
I don’t think he had much of a choice.
Plagerize, plagerize, let no one’s work escape your eyes.
Tom Lehr, one of me favorite geniuses, graduated from MIT, then went on to become an irreverent songster.
Just think of the outcome of our space program if the USSR grabbed all these guys first.
Right after Sputnik went up In 1957 there were rocket clubs formed in high schools around the country similar to the one in the movie October Sky. I was a member of a club of 5 members in my high school in Oklahoma City. Von Braun came to Oklahama City and met with us and a couple of other clubs.
We went on to fire several rockets at Fort Sill that were tracked on radar and our club set the record of 5200 ft. One of our members went on to be and engineer and worked for NASA for a while.
Just think of the outcome of our space program if the USSR grabbed all these guys first.
/mark
He also became a Christian after being witnessed to by a Gideon.
Von Braun was one of the old school engineers who designed the massive Saturn V with basically slide rule technology.
I always think of October Sky when I hear about Von Braun. That was a great film...
“No Senator...our Germans are better than their Germans.”
When your boss is sacked and you find out that you now report directly to Heinrich Himmler your options dwindle down to "work voluntarily and possibly survive" or "work at gunpoint and die when finished."
Bet they don’t commemorate him in London.
Is that Goddard?
And now an engineering degree is so complicated it takes 5 or 6 years to complete.
And others are...
* Taking out loans now from Fedzilla.
* to get degrees in social justice, and other such gutless studies.
* And Obama essentially shuts down the space program.
We are so screwed...
Obama doing what only Nikita Khrushchev could only dream of doing without a shoe!
“I always think of October Sky when I hear about Von Braun. That was a great film...”
As you can imagine, I can relate to the movie in a personal way. It was a great experiance for me and my 4 classmates.
[ Just think of the outcome of our space program if the USSR grabbed all these guys first. ]
They still wouldn’t have made it as far, because the political structure of the Soviet space agency was pretty much wholly paralyzed by party politiks.
October Sky is also what I think of when I hear of Von Braun. That, and the stuff now on The Military Channel. October Sky is a must see over and over again film, especially for your kids. That movie brought a lot of things to life for me, including Von Braun himself, who was the mostly unseen underlying hero of the film.
And it was a FILM, not a movie, Beautiful telling of a beautiful story without all the over directing folks do today (ahem Tinker Tailor...)
Von Braun’s epitaph, Psalms 19:1
“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.”
Goddard's interaction with Von Braun and Oberth of the Vereinigung fur Raumschifahrt (society for rocket flight) is well documented in This High Man, a book about Goddard.
They essentially got their start from him. They couldn't understand why American Intelligence people kept asking them questions after the war that Goddard had given them the answers to in the early 1930's - why don't you ask your own guy, they said, don't you know he's the one who came up with it?
Von Braun was a hard line manager and engineer, not a great innovator.
Goddard was dead by the end of WWII, von Braun on the other hand, was still alive and able to help the Americans with their space program in competition with the Soviets...
The Soviets wouldn't have had a space program without their German scientists, plus stealing other technology from the West. And we wouldn't have realized Von Braun's dream of going to the Moon if it weren't for the Soviets initially beating us in space.
I’m sure there was probably a good deal of that going on. Survival is a very strong instinct.
Operation Paperclip
“...to get degrees in social justice, and other such gutless studies...”
Engineering is how you make a living off of raw materials. Those degrees are how to make a living off the engineers.
Was that the "Fort Sill Beta" design that ran on zinc dust and sulfur?
I still have my copy of "Rocketry for Amateurs" that shows how to built that rocket.
the Rooskies did grab everything that wasn't nailed down and transported it back to Russia. Actually, even if it was nailed down. It would be interesting what military and scientific secrets they took from the Germans.
It did use zinc and sulfur. A small amount of black powder was used to set it off. We used the wire element from a car cigarette lighter to set it he black powder off. I was not aware that it was called a Fort Siil Beta. Maybe they were using our design in the book since we and another Okla City club were the first that I am aware of firing at Fort Sill.
I would like more info from you book.
So do I. It's locked away in my safe right now. To show you how times have changed, it was a gift from my school guidance counselor when I was in junior high.
I had learned a lot through trial and error and was up to the KNO3/C6H12O6 and aluminum bodies level when I received the book.
On the picture, it's one that I found online. They had the capability to make fantastic color images in his time through the use of multiple plates for the basic colors I believe. I'm not sure what process was used for this particular image.
One thing I learned at the link I posted about Goddard was that he had patented the gyro and vane in the exhaust control system. It's what the Germans used initially in the V2 and made from carbon, IIRC.
Yes, Megaupload has been snatched by the Feds, so you have to download one chapter at a time.
Not sure if it’s the same book, but I have a 1959 copy of “The Rocket Handbook for Amateurs” by Lt. Col. Charles M. Parkin, Jr. This book has a forward by Wernher Von Braun, and it details building a liquid fueled rocket. My copy is signed by the author to the man who gave it to me in 1975.
Is this the book you refer to?
The book we were discussing was published in 1960 by a Capt Brindley, but there must have been at least 3 similar books. Here is another
http://www.rocketryplanet.com/images/stories/archives/2929/a-guide-to-amateur-rocketry.pdf
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