The history of science and technology has rarely seen areas in which the evolution was so limited to the activity of individuals or small groups of people. Although the appearance of the rocket engine was thousands of years ago, the development of this field was very slow,perhaps due to the acute lack of specialists. It is also interesting that great leaps in the evolution of this field were caused by amateur researchers,driven only by their passion for rockets: Conrad Haas, Konstantin Eduardovici Tziolkovski, Hermann Oberth, Robert Goddard, Nicolae Văideanu. Of these, only Haas had a professional connection with the field of missiles, albeit indirectly. The others, however, entered this field on their own initiative, but they wrote important pages in the history of science and technology. Tziolkovski laid the foundations of the theory and calculation methods in cosmonautics; Oberth correctly estimated the evolution capability of cosmonautics in the 1920s; in the same period,Goddard built and tested the first rudimentary experimental models of liquid fuel rocket engines; in the 1940s, Nicolae Văideanu designed the first advanced models of liquid fuel rocket engines, much more advanced than the models built by the Nazis. Unfortunately, this great forerunner of worldwide cosmonautics is still so little known and recognized. The present work will seek to correct this injustice.
Keywords: Nicolae Văideanu; Robert Goddard; cosmonautics; liquid fuel rocket engine
https://studii.crifst.ro/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/COZMA1-9.pdf
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