Konstantin I. Konstantinov
From The Space Library
In 1849 K.I. Konstantinov was appointed director of the St. Petersburg rocketry establishment, and in the following year he was made head of the St. Petersburg Rocket-Manufacturing Plant. Between 1859 and 1861 he delivered a course of lectures on power-propelled combat rockets for artillery officers. In 1867 he was appointed head of the Nikolaev Rocket-Manufacturing plant. Konstantinov formulated the basic principles of military rocketry. From 1847 he concentrated on improving and building combat missiles and made a thorough study of their ballistic properties. Some of the models he developed were the most advanced at the time, with a flying range of four to five kilometers. Konstantinov maintained that "at any moment during the burning of a propellant composition the momentum imparted to the rocket is equal to that of the jet of gas."
Konstantinov's numerous articles appeared in the Artillery magazine (1845-1867) and the Naval Collection (1854-1866) He was the author of a book entitled Combat Missiles (1857) and the lectures he delivered at the Mikhailov Artillery Academy were published under the title About Combat Missiles (1864). Konstantinov also designed a number of artillery instruments, including an electrical ballistic device for measuring artillery shell velocity, an instrument to determine the altitude of flying signal flares, and optical range-finder and a ballistic pendulum. (Source: V.P. Glushko)
