To Venus and Mars by Booster

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.

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.