Space Flight. Countdown for the Future.

First English language edition, first printing of this work on rocket science and space flight for a popular audience. An attractive copy in the dust jacket.

Eugen Sänger (1905-1964) was one of Germany's leading rocket pioneers, starting as a member of the nation's amateur rocketry movement during the 1920s and studying aeronautics at university. His first thesis attempt, on rocket-powered flight, was rejected for being too fanciful, but in 1933 he published it as the book Raketenflugtechnik. This was 'the first study leading to the eventual development of a reusable human-piloted rocket-powered space plane, a concept which evolved into the X-planes and the space shuttle' (Norman, History of Information). During the Second World War he worked for the Reich Air Ministry, and unsuccessfully attempted to convert the concept into a rocket-powered, long-range bomber. He also made significant contributions to engine technology, introducing the force-cooled ramjet design that is now standard. After the war Sänger worked for the French government before founding a research centre in Stuttgart.

First English language edition, first printing; 8vo; contents clean; original blue and white cloth-patterned boards, blue backstrip, titles to spine blocked in silver, an excellent copy in the rubbed jacket; 302 pp.