Rockets: Sulfur, Sputnik and Scramjets

By Peter Macinnis

Allen and Unwin.
$24.95.

Reviewer: AIRCDRE Mark Lax

This book’s Australian author, Peter Macinnis, runs an interesting and educational web site.

With that in mind, Rockets is intended as both educational and fun – two objectives it admirably achieves.

Written from an historical perspective, Macinnis traverses the rich history of rocketry, gunpowder and propellants, beginning and ending with a commentary on the University of Queensland’s scramjet experiment at Woomera, which he sees as ushering in the next generation of rocket.

From Chinese beginnings around 700 BC through European adoption of rockets as weapons of war to Goddard, Hitler and the US space program, the book covers all things rocket related.

Given that rockets began as an alternative to artillery, the weaponry side is emphasised rather than the desire of man to go beyond Earth’s gravity.

Much is made of Congreve’s work with the Royal Arsenal in the early 1800s, as he established the first effective rocket rounds, which were successfully employed by the British against Napoleon.

Well written and an easy read, with a dozen or so illustrations, this book will certainly appeal to people with an interest in weapons of war, as well as those who look to the stars and wonder how we might get there.

Highly recommended.