p. cm. The Pocket encyclopedia of spaceflight in color.. Includes index.

p. cm. The Pocket encyclopedia of spaceflight in color.. Includes index.

The format is approximately 5 inches by 7.25 inches. 256 pages. Illustrations

The format is approximately 5 inches by 7.25 inches. 256 pages. Illustrations (some in color). Index. DJ is in a plastic sleeve and taped to boards. Ex-library with usual library markings. Follows advances in the design, construction, and use of missiles and rockets from the German experiments of the 1930's to contemporary and future space travel and describes international efforts to limit military arsenals. Kenneth Gatland (1924-1997), was a leading space flight theorist of the post-war years. His paper, Minimum Satellite Vehicles, written with A. M. Kunesch and A. E. Dixon, was credited with convincing the US armed forces that artificial satellites could be launched using existing technology. It was published in September 1951, at the inaugural Congress of the International Astronautical Federation, along with an equally definitive paper by T. R. F. Nonweiler on returning spacecraft to earth; both were reprinted in L J Carter's comprehensive book, Realities of Space Travel, in 1957. At 17 he joined the design staff of Hawker Aircraft Limited in Kingston, and worked during the war on development of Hurricane, Typhoon, and Tempest fighters. He will chiefly be remembered for his contributions to the literature of spaceflight. His first book, The Development of the Guided Missile, (1952) was immediately translated into Russian, and was followed by Space Travel (with Kunesch, 1953), Astronautics in the Sixties (1962), the four-volume Encyclopedia of Spaceflight (1967-75), and Encyclopedia of Space Technology (1981), each in turn a standard reference for its decade. In military terminology, a missile is a guided airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight usually by a jet engine or rocket motor. Missiles are thus also called guided missiles or guided rockets (when a previously unguided rocket is made guided). Missiles have five system components: targeting, guidance system, flight system, engine and warhead. Missiles come in types adapted for different purposes: surface-to-surface and air-to-surface missiles (ballistic, cruise, anti-ship, anti-submarine, anti-tank, etc. ), surface-to-air missiles (and anti-ballistic), air-to-air missiles, and anti-satellite weapons. Airborne explosive devices without propulsion are referred to as shells if fired by an artillery piece and bombs if dropped by an aircraft. Unguided jet-or rocket-propelled weapons are usually described as rocket artillery. Historically, the word missile referred to any projectile that is thrown, shot or propelled towards a target; this usage is still recognized today. A rocket (from Italian: rocchetto, lit. 'bobbin/spool') is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely from propellant carried within the vehicle; therefore a rocket can fly in the vacuum of space. Rockets work more efficiently in a vacuum and incur a loss of thrust due to the opposing pressure of the atmosphere. Multistage rockets are capable of attaining escape velocity from Earth and therefore can achieve unlimited maximum altitude. Compared with airbreathing engines, rockets are lightweight and powerful and capable of generating large accelerations. To control their flight, rockets rely on momentum, airfoils, auxiliary reaction engines, gimballed thrust, momentum wheels, deflection of the exhaust stream, propellant flow, spin, or gravity. Rockets for military and recreational uses date back to at least 13th-century China. Significant scientific, interplanetary and industrial use did not occur until the 20th century, when rocketry was the enabling technology for the Space Age, including setting foot on the Moon. Rockets are now used for fireworks, missiles and other weaponry, ejection seats, launch vehicles for artificial satellites, human spaceflight, and space exploration. Chemical rockets are the most common type...