History of the Rocket Engine

A rocket engineer familiar with human history, if asked to predict whether rocketry will eventually lead to true space flight or whether it will lead to the complete estinguishment of all science, may well be forgiven some pessimism about the answer, and even some rather acute feelings about personal guilt.

That the present-day rocket motor is only a tiny prelude to the monster engines of a future rocket age is absolutely certain; but whether we are to live like baboons or men is surely now quite a little uncertain.

Wyld, James H. "History of the Rocket Engine." The Complete Book of Outer Space 1953: 50-71.

(Founder, Reaction Motors, Inc.)