104 Research and National Purpose 



directed findings from this work. Many of the older concepts 

 of the formation of chars and even of the oxidation qualities 

 of hydrocarbon networks had to be revised. Accordingly, in 

 May of 1955 following several weeks of intensive study organ- 

 ized by the Department of Defense's and National Research 

 Council's Material Advisory Board, three chemists reported to 

 the Board the expectation that organic composite nose cones 

 composed of certain types of fibers combined with various rein- 

 forcing agents, including both inorganic and organic fibers, 

 would provide mechanically feasible structures. These ablating 

 shields should be capable of heat absorption exceeding the best 

 copper systems under design at that time by more than an order 

 of magnitude. The rest of the story is relatively well known, 

 for at this point intensive programs of mission-oriented re- 

 search and development in both industrial contract laboratories 

 (including primarily the aerospace industry centers of such 

 corporations as AVCO, General Electric, Lockheed and others) 

 and also in appropriate governmental centers were established. 

 Thus, from the first successful recovered ballistic nose cone 

 displayed by President Eisenhower a few years later, to the 

 most sophisticated heat shields for the recovery of manned 

 earth satellites today, such organic ablative barriers have been 

 the basis for our re-entry vehicle construction. 



While any amount of speculation could say that empirically 

 this sort of energy absorber would have been applied eventually 

 regardless of the basic information on its structural and elec- 

 tronic characteristics, the fact is that certain critical decisions 

 could be made quickly and effectively at an extremely early 

 stage in a tightly programmed effort, because of the general 

 scientific grasp which basic research had provided. Naturally, 

 the original concept was far short of the refined applied science 

 and engineering, involving many aspects of aerodynamics, 

 mechanics and thermodynamics, chemistry and so forth, which 

 eventually were used in the evolution of ablative bodies. The 

 important thing is that the systems development and systems 

 procurement for the missile system were able and willing to 



