Home >
1930 Max Valier.... Rocket propulsion....
1930 Max Valier.... Rocket propulsion....
Item # 722285
April 20, 1930
THE NEW YORK TIMES, April 20, 1930
* Max Valier
* Rocket car
* Liquid-propellant
The top of page 8 has a one column heading: "ROCKET CAR MAKES 50 MILES PER HOUR" with subheads. (see)
Complete with 26 pages, rag edition in nice condition.
background: On April 19, 1930, Austrian rocketry pioneer Max Valier staged one of his most ambitious demonstrations in Berlin when he unveiled a streamlined automobile powered not by the solid-fuel charges he had previously used but by a new liquid-fueled rocket engine burning an alcohol-oxygen mixture, a configuration that promised smoother, longer, and more controllable thrust. The test, conducted before reporters and technical observers, marked a significant evolution from his earlier Opel-RAK collaborations and showed that liquid propulsion—still largely experimental—could be adapted to a practical vehicle chassis. Eyewitness accounts described the car leaping forward with impressive acceleration, producing a steady, roaring exhaust rather than the erratic bursts of his solid-fuel designs, and the event was widely covered in the German press as a bold step toward both high-speed transportation and the future possibilities of spaceflight. Though Valier continued to refine the engine in the weeks that followed, this April 19 run became one of his last major public successes, as he died less than a month later during an explosion in a laboratory test, leaving the day’s demonstration as a defining milestone in early liquid-rocket experimentation.
Category: The 20th Century
Available Now
$52.00
