August 1944

From The Space Library

German Me-163B Komet rocket-powered fighters first attacked American bomber formations over Europe. The Me-163 had sweptback wings, Walther liquid-fuel rocket motor, speed of 500 mph, and powered flight duration of 8-10 minutes.

Sergei P. Korolev is released after serving six years of his ten year sentence. In October 1939 he had been at Kolyma in Siberia. By September 1940 he was moved to a minimum security prison which became Central Design Bureau 29 in Moscow.

Kenneth Gatland founder of the CBAS continues his ongoing history of Rocket Propulsion in the magazine Practical Mechanics. The article in the August edition covers the subject up to the year 1912. In this article he makes first mention of his discovery of the writings of William Leitch, although he doesn't know Leitch's name.