1923

From The Space Library

Turbine-type supercharger with a gear drive antler development at McCook Field.

Navy Bureau of Aeronautics abandoned water-cooled engines of less than 300 hp with the development of the Lawrence direct air-cooled J-1, 200-hp engine. Weight of water-cooling system was usually in excess of 25 percent of the total weight of the engine.

Jakov I. Perelman Soviet space historian publishes new edition of his book "Interplanetary Travel".

End of 1923: Die Rakete zu den Planetenraumen (The Rocket Into Interplanetary Space) by Hermann Oberth was published in Germany, and was the genesis for considerable discussion of rocket propulsion.

In a discussion of the uses of an interplanetary rocket, Hermann Oberth proposed circumlunar flight to explore the hidden face of the moon and discussed the possibility of storing cryogenic fuels in space. A spacecraft could rendezvous and dock in earth orbit with a fuel capsule. When the spacecraft reached the vicinity of a planet, it would detach itself from the capsule and descend to the surface. On departure, the spacecraft would ascend and reconnect to its fuel supply for the return trip.

Hermann Oberth, Die Rakete zu den Planetenraumen (The Rocket in Interplanetary Space) (1923), pp. 94, 96-97.