NO. 3 LIQUID-PROPELLANT ROCKET — GODDARD 9 



scopic control, on March 28, 1935, the rocket as viewed from the 

 1,000-foot shelter traveled first to the left and then to the right, 

 thereafter describing a smooth and rather flat trajectory. This result 

 was encouraging, as it indicated the presence of an actual stabilizing 

 force of sufficient magnitude to turn the rocket back to a vertical 

 course. The greatest height in this flight was 4,800 feet, the horizontal 

 distance 13,000 feet, and the maximum speed 550 miles per hour. 



In subsequent flights, with adjustments and improvements in the 

 stabilizing arrangements, the rockets have been stabilized up to the 

 time propulsion ceased, the trajectory being a smooth curve beyond 

 this point. In the rockets so far used, the vanes have moved only 

 during the period of propulsion, but with a continuation of the supply 

 of compressed gas the vanes could evidently act against the slip 

 stream of air as long as the rocket was in motion in air of appreciable 

 density. The oscillations each side of the vertical varied from 10° 

 to 30° and occupied from i to 2 seconds. Inasmuch as the rockets 

 started slowly, the first few hundred feet of the flight reminded one 

 of a fish swimming in a vertical direction. The gyroscope and direct- 

 ing vanes were tested carefully before each flight, by inclining and 

 rotating the rocket while it was suspended from the 20-foot tower 

 (pi. 8, fig. 2) . The rocket is shown in the launching tower, ready for a 

 flight, in the close-up (pi. 9, fig. i), and also in plate 9, figure 2, which 

 shows the entire tower. 



The behavior of the rocket in stabilized flight is shown in plates 10 

 and II, which are enlarged from i6-mm motion picture films of the 

 flights. The time intervals are i.o second for the first 5 seconds, and 

 0.5 second thereafter. The 60-foot tower from which the rockets 

 rise (pi. 9, fig. 2) appears small in the first few of each set of the 

 motion pictures, since the camera was 1,000 feet away, at the shelter 

 shown in plate 6, figure i. The continually increasing speed of the 

 rockets, with the accompanying steady roar, make the flights very 

 impressive. In the two flights for which the moving pictures are 

 shown, the rocket left a smoke trail and had a small, intensely white 

 flame issuing from the nozzle, which at times nearly disappeared 

 with no decrease in roar or propelling force. This smoke may be 

 avoided by varying the proportion of the fluids used in the rocket, 

 but is of advantage in following the path of the rocket. The occasional 

 white flashes below the rocket, seen in the photographs, are explosions 

 of gasoline vapor in the air. 



Plate 10 shows the flight of October 14, 1935, in which the rocket 

 rose 4,000 feet, and plate 11 shows the flight of May 31, 1935, in 

 which the rocket rose 7,500 feet. The oscillations from side to side, 



