Hard to believe that it's already over 2 months since Wote posted his brilliant pieces on the 1961 American Rocket Group Expo and the origins of the Booster Rocket, where the timeline shifted back to a start year of 1962. Reader Darth has sent in further evidence of the Booster's conception around that time in the form of a paper by Franklin P. Dixon of the Philco [Ford] Corporation most likely from 1962 as well although it isn't date stamped.
The paper is about the Aeronutronics [aka Ford Nucleonics] Empire design and is titled the EMPIRE DUAL PLANET FLYBY MISSION and describes "the EMPIRE study program performed for NASA by Aeronutronic in 1962." EMPIRE stood for "Early Manned Planetary Interplanetary Round Trip Expedition" and the dual planets were Venus and Mars. if anyone would like a copy of the paper, which is in pdf form, let me know and I will consult Darth. In the meantime here are the three key illustrations from the paper.
The paper is about the Aeronutronics [aka Ford Nucleonics] Empire design and is titled the EMPIRE DUAL PLANET FLYBY MISSION and describes "the EMPIRE study program performed for NASA by Aeronutronic in 1962." EMPIRE stood for "Early Manned Planetary Interplanetary Round Trip Expedition" and the dual planets were Venus and Mars. if anyone would like a copy of the paper, which is in pdf form, let me know and I will consult Darth. In the meantime here are the three key illustrations from the paper.
and by way of comparison here is reader Barry Hinchcliffe's great graphic of the same design posted by Wote in October
and Ed Valigursky's artistic interpretation from the book Man and Space 1964
and finally the final toy product, our friend the Century 21 Booster Rocket from 1967
PS. There's some footage of Aeronutronics at work on You Tube.
2 comments:
Great stuff; "philco" sounds like they make electric shavers, too?
Philco and Pifco - the electric heart of the 60's! Remember the Pifco Zeta Ray Gun?
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