US Hypersonic Research and Development: The Rise and Fall of 'Dyna-Soar', 1944-1963

After World War II, the technology for military space flight seemed within reach when Walter Dornberger, the former commander of Nazi Germany's V-2 rocket research, made an unsolicited proposal to the chief of the Wright Aeronautical Development Center for a hypersonic boost-glide weapon system. This book details the US Air Force's initial doctrine and missions for boost-glide hypersonic technology and shows how, this aspiration having reached maturity in "Dyna-Soar," the service's leadership never gave up their beliefs. After 1958, each successive Air Force chief of staff struggled to convince officials within the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) of its military value. Roy Houchin's analysis of the struggle to persuade the secretary of defense and his advisors, who did not share the Air Force's vision for a military space plane, illustrates the ebb and flow of an advanced technology program within the context of the US political system. Although the program was cancelled in 1963, questionsregarding the need for offensive military space operations and the viability of a rocket-boosted glider to provide routine, low-cost, military access to space continue to influence hypersonic research and development today, and offer the US Air Force another chance for a venture equal in scope to "Dyna-Soar."