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== Early life and education ==
== Early life and education ==


Forman was born in [[Gillespie, Illinois|Gillespie]], [[Illinois]],<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Guide to the Edward S. Forman papers |url=https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8vt1zz2/ |access-date=2023-07-19 |website=oac.cdlib.org}}</ref> the youngest of four brothers. The family moved to Pasadena, California in search of a better life. Forman attended Washington Junior High School, where he met [[Jack Parsons]], who would become his lifelong collaborator and friend. Forman protected Parsons, who was two years younger than him, from bullying and the two boys struck a strong bond over their common interest in science fiction.<ref name="Pendle-20052">{{Cite book |last=Pendle |first=George |title=Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist John Whiteside Parsons |publisher=Harcourt, Inc. |year=2005 |isbn=0-15-100997-X |location=}}</ref>{{Rp|pages=44–46}} Forman was an avid reader of the [[Barsoom|Barsoom series]] by [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]],<ref name="Pendle-20052" />{{Rp|pages=|page=46}} which is quoted as an influence by a generation of scientists and thinkers including [[Carl Sagan]].<ref name="sagan19780528">{{Cite news |last=Sagan |first=Carl |date=1978-05-28 |title=Growing up with Science Fiction |language=en-US |page=SM7 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/05/28/archives/growing-up-with.html |access-date=2018-12-12 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Inspired by science fiction, Forman and Parsons started building [[Model rocket|model rockets]] in their backyards and adopted the Latin phrase ''[[Ad astra (phrase)|Ad Astra per Aspera]]'' (through rough ways to the stars)<ref name=":0" /><ref name="Pendle-20052" />{{Rp|page=47}}as their motto. "It was our desire and intent to develop the ability to rocket to the moon", Forman later said about their high ambition as teenagers.<ref name="Landis-20052">{{cite journal |last=Landis |first=Geoffrey |date=July<!--'July–August' in the source--> 2005 |title=The Three Rocketeers |url=https://www.americanscientist.org/article/the-three-rocketeers |journal=American Scientist |publisher=[[Sigma Xi]] |volume=93 |issue=4 |doi=10.1511/2005.54.0 |doi-broken-date=2023-08-06 |access-date=21 July 2023}}</ref>
Forman was born in [[Gillespie, Illinois|Gillespie]], [[Illinois]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Guide to the Edward S. Forman papers |url=https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8vt1zz2/ |access-date=2023-07-19 |website=oac.cdlib.org}}</ref> the youngest of four brothers. The family eventually moved to Pasadena, California, in search of a better life.


Forman and Parsons moved to John Muir High School in Pasadena in 1929 and continued with their experiments in their backyards and out in the deserts. After graduation, Forman enrolled in [[Pasadena Junior College]] but dropped out without getting a degree. He took on an array of odd jobs working as carpenter, chauffer and postal worker as well as airplane mechanic, sheet metal worker and apprentice machinist in aircraft and ammunition factories.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |date=November 8, 1968 |title=JPL Plaque Honors LMSC Man |journal=Lockheed MSC Star |volume=13 |issue=48}}</ref> Meanwhile Parsons found part-time work in [[Hercules Inc.|Hercules Power Company]], an explosive manufacturer, where he taught himself to be a chemist. The pair used their newfound skills to improve their designs and as the tests grew more complex and explosive, they moved their testing site into the nearby [[Arroyo Seco (Los Angeles County)|Arroyo Seco]], a dry canyon wash at the foot of the [[San Gabriel Mountains]].<ref name="Pendle-20052" />{{Rp|pages=59-61}}
Around 1926, Forman and Jack Parsons were both students at Washington Junior High School.<ref name="Pendle-2005" />{{Rp|pages=44–46}}

=== Teenage rocket experiments ===

Forman and Parsons were captivated by the idea of building rockets for space travel. They began building skyrockets modeled after rockets they had seen in science fiction pulps. Their back yards were soon burnt and pock-marked by their tests. As the tests grew more complex and explosive, they moved their testing site into the nearby Arroyo Seco. By the time they reached high school at Pasadena's John Muir High School the pair had a reputation as mischief makers and {{clarify span|powder monkeys|reason=Slang term may not be known outside an in-group.|date=July 2023}}

Forman formed a strong friendship with Jack Parsons, a boy two years his junior who shared his interest in science fiction and rocketry, with the well-read Parsons enthralling Forman with his literary prowess, while Forman defended the unpopular Parsons from bullies. In 1928 the pair—adopting the Latin motto ''[[per aspera ad astra]]'' (''through hardship to the stars'')—began engaging in homemade gunpowder-based rocket experiments in the nearby [[Arroyo Seco (Los Angeles County)|Arroyo Seco]] canyon, as well as the Parsons family's back garden, which left it pockmarked with craters from explosive test failures. They incorporated commonly available fireworks such as [[cherry bomb]]s into their rockets, and Parsons suggested using glue as a binding agent to increase the rocket fuel's stability. This research became more complex when they began using materials such as [[aluminum foil]] to make the gunpowder easier to cast.<ref name="Carter-2004" />{{rp|4–5}}<ref name="Pendle-2005" />{{rp|44–47}}<ref name="Keane-2013">{{cite web |last=Keane |first=Phillip |title=Jack Parsons and the Occult Roots of JPL |url=http://www.spacesafetymagazine.com/2013/08/02/jack-parsons-occult-roots-jpl/ |work=spacesafetymagazine.com |publisher=[[International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety]] |date=August 2, 2013 |access-date=March 6, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Eng |first=Christina |title=It took a rocket scientist / Research pioneer also delved into the occult|url=http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/It-took-a-rocket-scientist-Research-pioneer-2697472.php|website=sfgate.com|publisher=[[Hearst Corporation]]|access-date=May 12, 2014|date=February 20, 2005}}</ref>

As Forman later said, "It was our desire and intent to develop the ability to rocket to the moon".<ref name="Landis-2005">{{cite journal |last=Landis |first=Geoffrey |date=July<!--'July–August' in the source--> 2005 |title=The Three Rocketeers |journal=American Scientist |volume=93 |issue=4 |doi=10.1511/2005.54.0 |publisher=[[Sigma Xi]] |doi-broken-date=2023-08-06 |url=https://www.americanscientist.org/article/the-three-rocketeers |access-date=21 July 2023}}</ref> They adopted the motto ''Ad Astra per Aspera'' (through rough ways to the stars). At the time, rockets were considered by the public as well as the scientific/academic community not only impossible but ridiculous.<ref name="Pendle-2005" />{{Rp|pages=46–48}}


== Research ==
== Research ==
[[File:P1-RocketBoys.jpg|thumb|[[GALCIT]] members in the [[Arroyo Seco (Los Angeles County)|Arroyo Seco]], November 1936. Left foreground to right: Rudolph Schott, Amo Smith, [[Frank Malina]], Ed Forman, and [[Jack Parsons]]. This photo is known in the JPL community as the ''Nativity Scene''.<ref name="JPL">{{cite web |date=2002 |title=JPL 101 |url=http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/about_JPL/jpl101.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170624182015/https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/about_JPL/jpl101.pdf |archive-date=June 24, 2017 |access-date=January 18, 2015 |website=jpl.nasa.gov |publisher=Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology}}</ref>]][[File:First JATO assisted Flight - GPN-2000-001538.jpg|thumb|right|Take-off on August 12, 1941, of America's first "rocket-assisted" fixed-wing aircraft, an [[ERCO Ercoupe]] fitted with a [[GALCIT]] developed solid propellant [[JATO]] booster]]
[[File:P1-RocketBoys.jpg|thumb|[[GALCIT]] members in the [[Arroyo Seco (Los Angeles County)|Arroyo Seco]], November 1936. Left foreground to right: Rudolph Schott, Amo Smith, [[Frank Malina]], Ed Forman, and [[Jack Parsons]]. This photo is known in the JPL community as the ''Nativity Scene''.<ref name="JPL">{{cite web |date=2002 |title=JPL 101 |url=http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/about_JPL/jpl101.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170624182015/https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/about_JPL/jpl101.pdf |archive-date=June 24, 2017 |access-date=January 18, 2015 |website=jpl.nasa.gov |publisher=Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology}}</ref>]][[File:First JATO assisted Flight - GPN-2000-001538.jpg|thumb|right|Take-off on August 12, 1941, of America's first "rocket-assisted" fixed-wing aircraft, an [[ERCO Ercoupe]] fitted with a [[GALCIT]] developed solid propellant [[JATO]] booster]]
⚫
In 1934, Forman and Parsons met [[Frank Malina]], and they gained access to the [[Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory]] at the [[California Institute of Technology]] (GALCIT) through Malina's supervisor [[Theodore von Kármán]], where they formed the GALCIT Rocket Research Group, a precursor of NASA's [[Jet Propulsion Laboratory]].<ref name="Lin-2020">{{cite web |last1=Lin |first1=Alex |last2=Collins |first2=Eric |date=20 November 2020 |title=The Occult History Behind Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory |website=Supercluster |url=https://www.supercluster.com/editorial/the-occult-history-behind-nasas-jet-propulsion-laboratory |access-date=21 July 2023}}</ref> Von Kármán approved their plan to build a high-altitude [[sounding rocket]] and do research into solid- and liquid-fueled rocket propulsion.<ref name="Winter-2017">{{cite magazine |last=Winter |first=Frank H. |date=16 March 2017 |title=How the 'Suicide Squad' Turned Into One of the World's First Rocket Companies |magazine=[[Smithsonian Magazine]] |publisher=[[Smithsonian Institution]] |issn=0037-7333 |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/how-suicide-squad-became-one-worlds-first-rocket-companies-180962548/}}</ref>
Forman's interest in rocketry began in his teens with his childhood friend [[Jack Parsons (rocket engineer)|Jack Parsons]] and continued at [[California Institute of Technology]].

⚫
In 1934, Forman and Parsons met [[Frank Malina]], and they gained access to the [[Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory]] at the [[California Institute of Technology]] (GALCIT) through Malina's supervisor [[Theodore von Kármán]], where they formed the GALCIT Rocket Research Group, a precursor of NASA's [[Jet Propulsion Laboratory]].<ref name="Lin-2020">{{cite web |last1=Lin |first1=Alex |last2=Collins |first2=Eric |date=20 November 2020 |title=The Occult History Behind Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory |website=Supercluster |url=https://www.supercluster.com/editorial/the-occult-history-behind-nasas-jet-propulsion-laboratory |access-date=21 July 2023}}</ref> Von Kármán approved their plan to build a high-altitude [[sounding rocket]] and do research into solid- and liquid-fueled rocket propulsion.<ref name="Winter-2017">{{cite magazine |last=Winter |first=Frank H. |date=16 March 2017 |title=How the 'Suicide Squad' Turned Into One of the World's First Rocket Companies |magazine=[[Smithsonian Magazine]] |publisher=[[Smithsonian Institution]] |issn=0037-7333 |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/how-suicide-squad-became-one-worlds-first-rocket-companies-180962548/}}</ref>


Other students and staff at the laboratory were unhappy with the dangers of doing rocket experiments in the laboratory, and because so many of their early experiments blew up, Forman, Parsons, and Malina became known as the "suicide squad". By 1938 they were no longer allowed to carry out their experiments at the Laboratory. They relocated the experiments to [[Arroyo Seco (Los Angeles County)|Arroyo Seco]] outside of Pasadena, which later became the site of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.<ref name="Landis-2005" /><ref name="Winter-2017" /> By 1938, these experiments were bearing fruit, and papers had been published. In May 1938, Chief of the Army Air Corps General Henry A. "Hap" Arnold visited the laboratory to investigate the possible use of rocketry for the Army, in particular the possibility for a solution for the problem of heavily loaded military planes having to take off on shorter runways. This later turned into a $10,000 contract to develop Jet-Assisted-Take-Off units for the Air Corps.<ref name="Winter-2017" />
Other students and staff at the laboratory were unhappy with the dangers of doing rocket experiments in the laboratory, and because so many of their early experiments blew up, Forman, Parsons, and Malina became known as the "suicide squad". By 1938 they were no longer allowed to carry out their experiments at the Laboratory. They relocated the experiments to [[Arroyo Seco (Los Angeles County)|Arroyo Seco]] outside of Pasadena, which later became the site of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.<ref name="Landis-2005">{{cite journal |last=Landis |first=Geoffrey |date=July<!--'July–August' in the source--> 2005 |title=The Three Rocketeers |url=https://www.americanscientist.org/article/the-three-rocketeers |journal=American Scientist |publisher=[[Sigma Xi]] |volume=93 |issue=4 |doi=10.1511/2005.54.0 |doi-broken-date=2023-08-06 |access-date=21 July 2023}}</ref><ref name="Winter-2017" /> By 1938, these experiments were bearing fruit, and papers had been published. In May 1938, Chief of the Army Air Corps General Henry A. "Hap" Arnold visited the laboratory to investigate the possible use of rocketry for the Army, in particular the possibility for a solution for the problem of heavily loaded military planes having to take off on shorter runways. This later turned into a $10,000 contract to develop Jet-Assisted-Take-Off units for the Air Corps.<ref name="Winter-2017" />


In early 1939, the National Academy of Sciences provided $1,000 to von Kármán and the Rocket Research Group to research rocket-assisted take-off of aircraft. This [[JATO]] research was the first rocket research to receive financial support from the U.S. government.<ref name="Malina-1967">{{cite web |title=Memoir on the GALCIT Rocket Research Project |last=Malina |first=Frank J. |publisher=l'Observatoire Leonardo pour les Arts et les Techno-Sciences |year=1967 |access-date=2007-04-10 |url=http://www.olats.org/OLATS/pionniers/memoir1.shtml |archive-date=2012-02-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205093959/http://www.olats.org/OLATS/pionniers/memoir1.shtml |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="NASA-1989">{{cite web |title=Orders of Magnitude - A History of the NACA and NASA, 1915-1990, Ch. 2 |publisher=NASA |year=1989 |url=https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4406/chap2.html}}</ref>
In early 1939, the National Academy of Sciences provided $1,000 to von Kármán and the Rocket Research Group to research rocket-assisted take-off of aircraft. This [[JATO]] research was the first rocket research to receive financial support from the U.S. government.<ref name="Malina-1967">{{cite web |title=Memoir on the GALCIT Rocket Research Project |last=Malina |first=Frank J. |publisher=l'Observatoire Leonardo pour les Arts et les Techno-Sciences |year=1967 |access-date=2007-04-10 |url=http://www.olats.org/OLATS/pionniers/memoir1.shtml |archive-date=2012-02-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205093959/http://www.olats.org/OLATS/pionniers/memoir1.shtml |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="NASA-1989">{{cite web |title=Orders of Magnitude - A History of the NACA and NASA, 1915-1990, Ch. 2 |publisher=NASA |year=1989 |url=https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4406/chap2.html}}</ref>
Line 57: Line 47:
| caption = Solid-fuel [[JATO]] unit manufactured by [[Aerojet]] at the [[National Air and Space Museum]]
| caption = Solid-fuel [[JATO]] unit manufactured by [[Aerojet]] at the [[National Air and Space Museum]]
}}
}}
Under contract with the armed forces, these early rockets, called [[JATO]]s (Jet-Assisted Take Off), were fastened under the wings of airplanes to accelerate takeoff.<ref name="Pendle-2005">{{Cite book|title=Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist John Whiteside Parsons|last=Pendle|first=George|publisher=Harcourt, Inc.|year=2005|isbn=0-15-100997-X|location=}}</ref>{{Rp|page=194}} In 1942, Kármán, Malina, Parsons, Forman and another graduate student [[Martin Summerfield]] invested $250 each of their own money to found [[Aerojet|Aerojet General Corporation]] for the purpose of manufacturing the JATOs.<ref name="Pendle-2005" />{{Rp|page=194}} Forman was one of six founding members along with Parsons, Malina, Kármán, and two others, of Aerojet Engineering Corporation, which was incorporated in March 1942.<ref name="Doyle-2019">{{cite web |last1=Doyle |first1=Stephen E. |last2=Ciancone |first2=Michael |date=21 October 2019 |title=Aerojet Engineering Corporation: Stimulation and Creation, 1935-1942 |publisher=[[NASA STI Program]] |url=https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20190032336 |access-date=21 July 2023}}</ref>
Under contract with the armed forces, these early rockets, called [[JATO]]s (Jet-Assisted Take Off), were fastened under the wings of airplanes to accelerate takeoff.<ref name="Pendle-20052" />{{Rp|page=194}} In 1942, Kármán, Malina, Parsons, Forman and another graduate student [[Martin Summerfield]] invested $250 each of their own money to found [[Aerojet|Aerojet General Corporation]] for the purpose of manufacturing the JATOs.<ref name="Pendle-20052" />{{Rp|page=194}} Forman was one of six founding members along with Parsons, Malina, Kármán, and two others, of Aerojet Engineering Corporation, which was incorporated in March 1942.<ref name="Doyle-2019">{{cite web |last1=Doyle |first1=Stephen E. |last2=Ciancone |first2=Michael |date=21 October 2019 |title=Aerojet Engineering Corporation: Stimulation and Creation, 1935-1942 |publisher=[[NASA STI Program]] |url=https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20190032336 |access-date=21 July 2023}}</ref>


In 1943, the [[United States Army Air Forces|Army Air Forces]] asked GALCIT to study the possible use of rockets to propel long-range missiles. The response sent in reply, dated 20 November 1943, was the first document to use the [[Jet Propulsion Laboratory]] name,<ref name="Burrows-1999">{{cite book |last=Burrows |first=William E. |title=This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age |year=1999 |publisher=Modern Library | pages=111 |isbn=0-375-75485-7}}</ref> even though as far as Caltech was concerned, the JPL did not yet formally exist.<ref name="Bluth">
In 1943, the [[United States Army Air Forces|Army Air Forces]] asked GALCIT to study the possible use of rockets to propel long-range missiles. The response sent in reply, dated 20 November 1943, was the first document to use the [[Jet Propulsion Laboratory]] name,<ref name="Burrows-1999">{{cite book |last=Burrows |first=William E. |title=This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age |year=1999 |publisher=Modern Library | pages=111 |isbn=0-375-75485-7}}</ref> even though as far as Caltech was concerned, the JPL did not yet formally exist.<ref name="Bluth">
{{cite web |last=Bluth |first=John |title=Von Karman, Malina laid the groundwork for the future JPL |publisher=JPL |url=http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/files/universe/un940715.txt}}</ref> According to Malina, the work of the JPL was considered to include the rocketry research carried out by the GALCIT Rocket Research Group from 1936 on.<ref name="Malina-YYYY">{{cite conference |last=Malina |first=F. J. |date=1969 <!--typewritten manuscript, 32 pages; series=JPL History collection; oclc=733101419 --> |publication-date=September 1977 |authorlink=Frank Malina |title=The U.S. Army Air Corps Jet Propulsion Research Project, GALCIT Project No. 1, 1939–1946: A Memoir. |conference=Essays on the History of rocketry and astronautics: proceedings of the third through the sixth Symposia of the International Academy of Astronautics |editor1-last=Hall |editor1-first=R. Cargill |volume=2 Part III The Development of Liquid- and Solid-propellant Rockets, 1880–1945 |publisher=NASA Scientific and Technical Information Office |location=Washington, D.C. |series=NASA conference publication, 2014 |id=CP 2014 |oclc=5354560 |page=153 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PSSwnl3_OA8C&pg=PA153 <!-- alt-url1=https://books.google.com/books?id=nP6HXGchSI0C (vol. 1); alt-url2=https://books.google.com/books?id=OvAbvtSysd0C (vol. 2); alt-url3=https://books.google.com/books?id=nyMLBai2n-EC (vol. 1); alt-url4=https://books.google.com/books?id=L5nuP8YrQFMC (vol. 2) -->}}</ref>
{{cite web |last=Bluth |first=John |title=Von Karman, Malina laid the groundwork for the future JPL |publisher=JPL |url=http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/files/universe/un940715.txt}}</ref> According to Malina, the work of the JPL was considered to include the rocketry research carried out by the GALCIT Rocket Research Group from 1936 on.<ref name="Malina-YYYY">{{cite conference |last=Malina |first=F. J. |date=1969 <!--typewritten manuscript, 32 pages; series=JPL History collection; oclc=733101419 --> |publication-date=September 1977 |authorlink=Frank Malina |title=The U.S. Army Air Corps Jet Propulsion Research Project, GALCIT Project No. 1, 1939–1946: A Memoir. |conference=Essays on the History of rocketry and astronautics: proceedings of the third through the sixth Symposia of the International Academy of Astronautics |editor1-last=Hall |editor1-first=R. Cargill |volume=2 Part III The Development of Liquid- and Solid-propellant Rockets, 1880–1945 |publisher=NASA Scientific and Technical Information Office |location=Washington, D.C. |series=NASA conference publication, 2014 |id=CP 2014 |oclc=5354560 |page=153 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PSSwnl3_OA8C&pg=PA153 <!-- alt-url1=https://books.google.com/books?id=nP6HXGchSI0C (vol. 1); alt-url2=https://books.google.com/books?id=OvAbvtSysd0C (vol. 2); alt-url3=https://books.google.com/books?id=nyMLBai2n-EC (vol. 1); alt-url4=https://books.google.com/books?id=L5nuP8YrQFMC (vol. 2) -->}}</ref>


Aerojet's first two contracts were from the U.S. Navy; the [[Bureau of Aeronautics]] requested a solid-fuel JATO and [[Wilbur Wright Field]] requested a liquid-fuel unit. The Air Corps had requested two thousand JATOs from Aerojet by late 1943, committing $256,000 toward Parsons' solid-fuel type. Despite this drastically increased demand, the company continued to operate informally and remained intertwined with the GALCIT project. Caltech astronomer [[Fritz Zwicky]] was brought in as head of the company's research department.<ref name="Carter-2004">{{cite book |title=Sex and Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons |edition=new |first=John | last=Carter |year=2004 |publisher=Feral House |location=Port Townsend, Washington |isbn=978-0-922915-97-2}}</ref>{{rp|73–76}}<ref name="Pendle-2005" />{{rp|191–192, 223–226}}
Aerojet's first two contracts were from the U.S. Navy; the [[Bureau of Aeronautics]] requested a solid-fuel JATO and [[Wilbur Wright Field]] requested a liquid-fuel unit. The Air Corps had requested two thousand JATOs from Aerojet by late 1943, committing $256,000 toward Parsons' solid-fuel type. Despite this drastically increased demand, the company continued to operate informally and remained intertwined with the GALCIT project. Caltech astronomer [[Fritz Zwicky]] was brought in as head of the company's research department.<ref name="Carter-2004">{{cite book |title=Sex and Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons |edition=new |first=John | last=Carter |year=2004 |publisher=Feral House |location=Port Townsend, Washington |isbn=978-0-922915-97-2}}</ref>{{rp|73–76}}<ref name="Pendle-20052" />{{rp|191–192, 223–226}}


== See also ==
== See also ==

Revision as of 03:31, 10 August 2023

Edward Seymour Forman
Born(1912-12-03)December 3, 1912
Gillespie, Illinoi
DiedFebruary 12, 1973(1973-02-12) (aged 60)
OccupationRocket engineer
Organizations
  • Jet Propulsion Laboratory
  • California Institute of Technology
  • Aerojet Engineering Corporation
  • Hughes Aircraft Company
  • Lockheed Martin Corp

Edward Seymour Forman (December 3, 1912 – February 12, 1973) was an American engineer and inventor known for his pioneering work in early rocketry in the United States. Forman, along with his collaborators in Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology (GALCIT), demonstrated the first practical jet-assisted take-off (JATO) of an aircraft in the United States.[1] Forman was among the GALCIT innovators that went on to found Aerojet General Corporation, the largest rocket technology manufacturer in the 1940s,[2][3]: 258  and the GALCIT Rocket Research Group itself became the precursor of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.[4]

Early life and education

Forman was born in Gillespie, Illinois,[5] the youngest of four brothers. The family moved to Pasadena, California in search of a better life. Forman attended Washington Junior High School, where he met Jack Parsons, who would become his lifelong collaborator and friend. Forman protected Parsons, who was two years younger than him, from bullying and the two boys struck a strong bond over their common interest in science fiction.[6]: 44–46  Forman was an avid reader of the Barsoom series by Edgar Rice Burroughs,[6]: 46  which is quoted as an influence by a generation of scientists and thinkers including Carl Sagan.[7] Inspired by science fiction, Forman and Parsons started building model rockets in their backyards and adopted the Latin phrase Ad Astra per Aspera (through rough ways to the stars)[5][6]: 47 as their motto. "It was our desire and intent to develop the ability to rocket to the moon", Forman later said about their high ambition as teenagers.[8]

Forman and Parsons moved to John Muir High School in Pasadena in 1929 and continued with their experiments in their backyards and out in the deserts. After graduation, Forman enrolled in Pasadena Junior College but dropped out without getting a degree. He took on an array of odd jobs working as carpenter, chauffer and postal worker as well as airplane mechanic, sheet metal worker and apprentice machinist in aircraft and ammunition factories.[9] Meanwhile Parsons found part-time work in Hercules Power Company, an explosive manufacturer, where he taught himself to be a chemist. The pair used their newfound skills to improve their designs and as the tests grew more complex and explosive, they moved their testing site into the nearby Arroyo Seco, a dry canyon wash at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains.[6]: 59–61 

Research

GALCIT members in the Arroyo Seco, November 1936. Left foreground to right: Rudolph Schott, Amo Smith, Frank Malina, Ed Forman, and Jack Parsons. This photo is known in the JPL community as the Nativity Scene.[10]
Take-off on August 12, 1941, of America's first "rocket-assisted" fixed-wing aircraft, an ERCO Ercoupe fitted with a GALCIT developed solid propellant JATO booster

In 1934, Forman and Parsons met Frank Malina, and they gained access to the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology (GALCIT) through Malina's supervisor Theodore von Kármán, where they formed the GALCIT Rocket Research Group, a precursor of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.[11] Von Kármán approved their plan to build a high-altitude sounding rocket and do research into solid- and liquid-fueled rocket propulsion.[2]

Other students and staff at the laboratory were unhappy with the dangers of doing rocket experiments in the laboratory, and because so many of their early experiments blew up, Forman, Parsons, and Malina became known as the "suicide squad". By 1938 they were no longer allowed to carry out their experiments at the Laboratory. They relocated the experiments to Arroyo Seco outside of Pasadena, which later became the site of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.[12][2] By 1938, these experiments were bearing fruit, and papers had been published. In May 1938, Chief of the Army Air Corps General Henry A. "Hap" Arnold visited the laboratory to investigate the possible use of rocketry for the Army, in particular the possibility for a solution for the problem of heavily loaded military planes having to take off on shorter runways. This later turned into a $10,000 contract to develop Jet-Assisted-Take-Off units for the Air Corps.[2]

In early 1939, the National Academy of Sciences provided $1,000 to von Kármán and the Rocket Research Group to research rocket-assisted take-off of aircraft. This JATO research was the first rocket research to receive financial support from the U.S. government.[1][13]

In the summer of 1941, GALCIT research led to a successful flight test, when Army test pilot Captain Homer Boushey flew a light Ercoupe monoplane with two 50-pound JATO units attached, and made several flights. For the last attempt, they removed the propeller, and on 23 August 1941, Boushey made the first unassisted rocket propelled flight with six JATOs under the wings.[2]

Career

{{{annotations}}}

Solid-fuel JATO unit manufactured by Aerojet at the National Air and Space Museum

Under contract with the armed forces, these early rockets, called JATOs (Jet-Assisted Take Off), were fastened under the wings of airplanes to accelerate takeoff.[6]: 194  In 1942, Kármán, Malina, Parsons, Forman and another graduate student Martin Summerfield invested $250 each of their own money to found Aerojet General Corporation for the purpose of manufacturing the JATOs.[6]: 194  Forman was one of six founding members along with Parsons, Malina, Kármán, and two others, of Aerojet Engineering Corporation, which was incorporated in March 1942.[14]

In 1943, the Army Air Forces asked GALCIT to study the possible use of rockets to propel long-range missiles. The response sent in reply, dated 20 November 1943, was the first document to use the Jet Propulsion Laboratory name,[15] even though as far as Caltech was concerned, the JPL did not yet formally exist.[16] According to Malina, the work of the JPL was considered to include the rocketry research carried out by the GALCIT Rocket Research Group from 1936 on.[17]

Aerojet's first two contracts were from the U.S. Navy; the Bureau of Aeronautics requested a solid-fuel JATO and Wilbur Wright Field requested a liquid-fuel unit. The Air Corps had requested two thousand JATOs from Aerojet by late 1943, committing $256,000 toward Parsons' solid-fuel type. Despite this drastically increased demand, the company continued to operate informally and remained intertwined with the GALCIT project. Caltech astronomer Fritz Zwicky was brought in as head of the company's research department.[18]: 73–76 [6]: 191–192, 223–226 

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Malina, Frank J. (1967). "Memoir on the GALCIT Rocket Research Project". l'Observatoire Leonardo pour les Arts et les Techno-Sciences. Archived from the original on 2012-02-05. Retrieved 2007-04-10.
  2. ^ a b c d e Winter, Frank H. (16 March 2017). "How the 'Suicide Squad' Turned Into One of the World's First Rocket Companies". Smithsonian Magazine. Smithsonian Institution. ISSN 0037-7333.
  3. ^ Theodore von Kármán with Lee Edson (1967) The Wind and Beyond, Little, Brown and Company
  4. ^ Zibit, Benjamin Seth (1999). The Guggenheim Aeronautics Laboratory at Caltech and the creation of the modern rocket motor (1936–1946): How the dynamics of rocket theory became reality (Thesis). Bibcode:1999PhDT........48Z. Archived from the original on 2017-07-10. Retrieved 2021-02-19.
  5. ^ a b "Guide to the Edward S. Forman papers". oac.cdlib.org. Retrieved 2023-07-19.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Pendle, George (2005). Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist John Whiteside Parsons. Harcourt, Inc. ISBN 0-15-100997-X.
  7. ^ Sagan, Carl (1978-05-28). "Growing up with Science Fiction". The New York Times. p. SM7. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
  8. ^ Landis, Geoffrey (July 2005). "The Three Rocketeers". American Scientist. 93 (4). Sigma Xi. doi:10.1511/2005.54.0 (inactive 2023-08-06). Retrieved 21 July 2023.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of August 2023 (link)
  9. ^ "JPL Plaque Honors LMSC Man". Lockheed MSC Star. 13 (48). November 8, 1968.
  10. ^ "JPL 101" (PDF). jpl.nasa.gov. Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology. 2002. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 24, 2017. Retrieved January 18, 2015.
  11. ^ Lin, Alex; Collins, Eric (20 November 2020). "The Occult History Behind Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory". Supercluster. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
  12. ^ Landis, Geoffrey (July 2005). "The Three Rocketeers". American Scientist. 93 (4). Sigma Xi. doi:10.1511/2005.54.0 (inactive 2023-08-06). Retrieved 21 July 2023.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of August 2023 (link)
  13. ^ "Orders of Magnitude - A History of the NACA and NASA, 1915-1990, Ch. 2". NASA. 1989.
  14. ^ Doyle, Stephen E.; Ciancone, Michael (21 October 2019). "Aerojet Engineering Corporation: Stimulation and Creation, 1935-1942". NASA STI Program. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
  15. ^ Burrows, William E. (1999). This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age. Modern Library. p. 111. ISBN 0-375-75485-7.
  16. ^ Bluth, John. "Von Karman, Malina laid the groundwork for the future JPL". JPL.
  17. ^ Malina, F. J. (1969). Hall, R. Cargill (ed.). The U.S. Army Air Corps Jet Propulsion Research Project, GALCIT Project No. 1, 1939–1946: A Memoir. Essays on the History of rocketry and astronautics: proceedings of the third through the sixth Symposia of the International Academy of Astronautics. NASA conference publication, 2014. Vol. 2 Part III The Development of Liquid- and Solid-propellant Rockets, 1880–1945. Washington, D.C.: NASA Scientific and Technical Information Office (published September 1977). p. 153. OCLC 5354560. CP 2014.
  18. ^ Carter, John (2004). Sex and Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons (new ed.). Port Townsend, Washington: Feral House. ISBN 978-0-922915-97-2.

Further reading

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