US Hypersonic Research and Development

The Rise and Fall of 'Dyna-Soar', 1944-1963

Roy F. Houchin II

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2006
• ISBN:
  9781134230266
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

An essential new account of some of the most valuable research and development in international military history.

Roy F. Houchin II shows how the roots of US Air Force hypersonic research and development are grounded in Army Air Force General Henry H. 'Hap' Arnold's identification of the need for advanced airpower weapon systems to meet the anticipated postwar enemy threat. The technology for a smooth transition to military spaceflight seemed within reach when Bell Aircraft Corporation executive Walter Dornberger (the former commander of Nazi Germany's V-2 rocket research) made an unsolicited proposal to William E. Lamar (the chief of Wright Aeronautical Development Center's New Development Office of the Bomber Aircraft Division at Wright-Patterson AFB, OH) for a hypersonic boost-glide weapon system. Visionaries like Arnold, Dornberger, and Lamar believed a hypersonic boost-glider would represent the ultimate expression of the US Air Force's doctrine by performing strategic bombardment and reconnaissance more successfully any other type of vehicle. As this aspiration reached maturity in Dyna-Soar, the service's leadership never gave up their beliefs. This book shows how the struggle to persuade the secretary of defence and his advisors, who did not share the Air Force's vision for a military spaceplane, illustrates the ebb and flow of an advanced technology program and its powerful legacy within American society.

Table of contents

• Series: Space Power and Politics
• Acknowledgements
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 Establishing a vision for the future: forecasting potential enemy threats, 1944–1952
• Chapter 2 Pushing the state-of-the-art: justifying the need for routine access to space, April 1952–May 1955
• Chapter 3 Continuing to push the state-of-the art: the gathering consensus on hypersonic flight, May 1955–October 1957
• Chapter 4 The debate over manned military spaceflight: the spaceflight revolution and Dyna-Soar, October 1957–May 1959
• Chapter 5 Struggling to maintain the manned military mission: gaining the confidence of officials within the office of the Secretary of Defense, June 1959–December 1960
• Chapter 6 Manned military space programs: interagency rivalry, January 1961–June 1962
• Chapter 7 The Dyna-Soar cancellation
• Conclusion: the legacy of Dyna-Soar
• Endnotes
• Bibliography
• Index