Willy Ley was my childhood hero. His books about space travel invigorated my young mind and imagination.
I even talked my parents into taking me to a space convention where he signed my copy of The Conquest of Space, with illustrations by the great Chesley Bonestell. I wish I still had that book!
which had a great description of the activities of his rocket club while the Nazis were closing in. At some point the police shut them down because "somebody might get hurt" but somebody from the rocket club convinced the authorities that this was a feature and not a bug and pretty soon they were spirited away to
because he figured out pretty much everything about space travel based on the kinetic theory of gases and the conservation of momentum and energy without building a single piece of hardware.
https://archive.is/ClX2n
Willy Ley was my childhood hero. His books about space travel invigorated my young mind and imagination.
I even talked my parents into taking me to a space convention where he signed my copy of The Conquest of Space, with illustrations by the great Chesley Bonestell. I wish I still had that book!
RIP, Willy
Gift link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/nyregion/willy-ley-rocket...
Loved his book "Rockets, Missiles and Men in Space"
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.161.3844.874
which had a great description of the activities of his rocket club while the Nazis were closing in. At some point the police shut them down because "somebody might get hurt" but somebody from the rocket club convinced the authorities that this was a feature and not a bug and pretty soon they were spirited away to
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usedom
and the rest was history. Increasingly though my favorite prophet of the space age is
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Tsiolkovsky
because he figured out pretty much everything about space travel based on the kinetic theory of gases and the conservation of momentum and energy without building a single piece of hardware.