On 9/2/2010 3:29 PM, Pat Flannery wrote:

Even Goddard had his off days:
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2007/...e-outer-space/

BTW, he wasn't the first person to come up with the idea of driving
propellers by shooting rocket exhaust onto a turbine to drive them.
Meet the Berdan torpedo of the 1880's:
http://www.btinternet.com/~philipr/images/torp12.jpg
I may be being too harsh about Goddard's turbo-rocket plane; it is a
clever solution using rocket power to drive the props at low speed, but
what to make those turbine blades out of that go into the rocket exhaust
is a good question given the materials of the time...graphite could take
the heat, but would it take the structural stress of being spun that
fast? Maybe they were supposed to be some highly conductive metal like
copper and the idea being that they would cool down during their
rotation outside of the exhaust stream as they spun?
It would make on very wild looking model, I'll say that for it. :-)

Pat