Goddard Gallery
| Robert H. Goddard built the first liquid fueled rocket. Here are some closeups of that rocket under assembly in Dr. Goddard's lab at Clark University. Esther Goddard took the pictures, and Robert Alway took pictures of the pictures bound in a typed transcript of Goddard's notebooks at the Roswell Museum in Roswell New Mexico. Transcripts with sharp, 4" x 5" contact prints exist at Roswell, Clark University's Goddard Library Special Collections, and the National Air and Space Museum's rare book room. | |
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Figures from "Develpment of Liquid Propellant Rocket"
Robert H Goddard, 1921-1929
| Tests Conducted Out of Doors, Leading to Two
Actual Flights "After the test in the sheet steel shelter, January 20 (1926), demonstrating a steady lifting force of 5 lbs in excess of the weight of the propelling liquids, it was decided to construct a rocket similar to that used in this test, but as light as possible, and supplying its own back pressure, and to use this rocket for obtaining a flight" |
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| Fig. 106. Chamber and Nozzle: "The hemispherical top to the chamber with the steel entrance pipes bearing the choking and check valves, were used intact (from a previous test). A threaded steel ring was welded to the lower edge of this top, and to this the chamber, consisting of a 1/32" thick aluminum tube, was fastened, the alundum (ceramic) liner being separated from the wall of the tube by a sheet of asbestos." |  |
| Fig 107. Chamber and Nozzle: "The nozzle, with alundum liner 10" long, tapering from 2" to 1/2" diameter, was of welded aluminum, and separated from the liner by a sheet of asbestos." |  |
| Fig. 108. Chamber
and Nozzle. "The flat base of the chamber was also of aluminum, welded to
the nozzle, but not perfectly tight, and with the leaks stopped up with asphalt varnish
and 'Sil-o-cel,' the liner of the base of the chamber being a flat alundum plate,
1/8" thick." Note that Goddard, pioneer of the use of the de Laval nozzle in rockets, left out the convergent section on this first liquid-fueled rocket to fly, six years after he championed the use of the convergent-divergent nozzle in "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes." |
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| Fig 109. Assembled Liquid Oxygen Tank. |  |
| Fig 110. Assembled Liquid Oxygen Tank. |  |
| Fig 111. Assembled Liquid Oxygen Tank. |  |
| Fig 112. Dismantled Liquid Oxygen Tank |  |
| Fig 113. Dismantled Liquid Oxygen Tank |  |
| Fig 114. Gasoline Tank |  |
| Fig 115. Gasoline Tank |  |
| Fig 121. Rocket Ready for Test |  |
| Fig. 124. Rocket Ready for Test this is the most famous picture, taken March 6, 1926. "The first test of the rocket shown in figs. 121 to 124 inclusive proved unsatisfactory for the reason that the aluminum bottom of the chamber burned through (probably owing to leaks in the welded joint) after about 4 seconds, and the recoil from the nozzle, which was thrown downward, jerked the remainder of the chamber upward, and bent the supply pipes." (parentheses were Goddard's) |  |
| Fig. 126. Rocket Ready for Test - March 16, 1926 This is how it really flew. The photo isn't used much because of a light leak in the camera that gunked up the top of the image. I tried to fix in in photoshop, but you can still see it. "One of the differences between this and the first trial was the use of a 1/64" thick spring steel nozzle." The asphalt gunk in fig. 108 is no longer there. |  |
| Fig 134. Rocket Ready for test, April 3, 1926 This is the second and final flight of the first liquid propelled rocket, with modifications. |  |
| Remains of the rocket in the Roswell Museum. Bob Alway took this picture. Other parts were incorporated into another rocket that never flew. |  |
| Rocket incorporating parts of original 1926 rocket. Bob Alway took this one, too. It's not the best picture, but the 110 camera he took it with has flown in a rocket itself. |  |
| Test No. 72, launched December 30, 1930. This is the first rocket Goddard launched at Roswell, New Mexico, after the state Fire Marshall booted him out of Massachusetts. |  |
| Test No. 73, launched September 29, 1931. |  |
| Test No. 77, launched April 19, 1932. This was the first rocket with a gyroscopic guidance system. The little blast vanes that provided control are hidden on the little bit of tubing the rocket is resting on. |  |
| Here is a diagram of the inner workings of one of Goddard's later "A-Series" rockets from the 1930's |  |
| Test L-7, launched November 7 1936. This was the first clustered liquid-fueled rocket. Alas, one engine failed at lift-off, and it only made it to 200 feet. |  |
| Test P-23, launched August 9, 1940. This rocket used turbopumps to force fuel into the engine. It was the last of Goddard's rockets to fly. |  |
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