Beschreibung:

Two volumes. Comprising: Jet Propulsion, A Reference Text Prepared By The Staffs Of The Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute Of Technology. Pasadena, CA: California Institute of Technology, 1946. 779 pp. Folding charts, 2 technical charts laid in at rear. Bound in simulated leather, gilt spine lettering. Engineering Cybernetics. New York: McGraw Hill, 1954.289 pp. Illustrated with graphs and charts. Original cloth. First Edition. The earlier massive work compiled by the Chinese aeronautics genius while a wartime US Army consultant, was used in World War II courses for Army and Navy officers doing graduate study at Caltech, including 7 chapters on solid and liquid propellant rockets. Retains Original “Restricted” classification of the Air Technical Service Command, being a significant association copy, with the signature on front flyleaf and title-page of Allen Puckett, another Caltech aerodynamic genius, later CEO of Hughes Aircraft, overseeing its guided missile and communications satellite production. The later book, published while Tsien was in political and legal limbo, was a remarkable follow-up to Norbert Wiener’s groundbreaking work on electronic communication and control systems, though there are numerous references in the book to technical aspects of rocketry, Tsien's principal field of expertise. An Introduction by Tsien in the 1946 tome notes that this volume did not address “one field of application in which the rocket appears as the only possible means of propulsion, i.e. navigation in space beyond the earth’s atmosphere. The problem of navigation in the stellar space (astronautics) is the object of many fictional and a few scientific works.” Accompanied by a simple drawing of a multi-stage rocket headed into outer space. After its classified publication, Tsien became Goddard Professor of Aerodynamics at Cal Tech until he was briefly arrested while about to visit his homeland at the start of the McCarthy era. Allegations of his youthful Communist Party membership led to unfounded suspicions of espionage and Tsien was placed under house arrest in Los Angeles, refused permission to leave the country until he was finally deported to China the year after this book was published. In the Preface, Tsien thankfully acknowledged the advice of Frank Marble, his close friend at CalTech during his political ostracism and the only colleague who accompanied Tsien to the dock when, he boarded a boat for China, leaving America after 20 years of residence - never to return. Warmly welcomed upon arrival by the new Chinese Communist Government, he was instrumental in producing the first Chinese ballistic missile which also served as foundation for China’s first satellite. He is still revered in China as the “father” of his country’s space program.