Dyna-Soar: Hypersonic Strategic Weapons System: Apogee Books Space Series 35 (Paperback)

by Robert Godwin (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Robert Godwin has created an unparalleled look at this oft-forgotten program..." -- collectspace.com, September, 2003

"Robert Godwin's evocative compendium does superb justice to one of aerospace history's great "what ifs"." -- hyperscale.com, August, 2003

"Thanks for a great account of one of the most fascinating space projects that never flew." -- Andrew Chaikin, author of

"an encyclopedic look at an aircraft that could have changed the whole tenor of the Cold War space race..." -- Space.com, September, 2003

"treasure trove of material that provides the closest thing anyone today can get to an inside view of the project" -- IEEE Spectrum, September, 2003

Product Description
Originally proposed in 1934 by an Austrian engineer by the name of Eugen Sänger, it had the potential to be the ultimate super-weapon. Sänger's design soon found its way into the hands of the Nazi regime in Germany where it was refined at the Goring Institute.

In 1952 Walter Dornberger, a one-time German army general who had run the rocket program at the infamous Peenemünde facility, sent an unsolicited proposal to the Air Force on behalf of the Bell Aircraft Company. Dornberger saw that Sänger's idea was still valid and that current technology was catching up with the concept.

In 1954 the United States Air Force and the Bell Aircraft Company arranged a contract for the study of an advanced, bomber-reconnaissance weapon system.

By June 1959 the whole idea had been dropped in the lap of the Boeing company who had spent millions on research in their bid to win the coveted contract. The new vehicle was to be called Dyna-Soar, a catchy abbreviation which stood for Dynamic Soarer. This new vehicle would be able to be dispatched to anywhere on Earth in a matter of hours and would provide the long-range radar systems of the time only a three minute warning of its impending arrival.

It was a Space Shuttle with a mission - to drop a weapon payload anywhere on Earth and to do so while approaching its target at hypersonic velocity - 18,000 miles per hour.

Between 1957 and 1963 the Dyna-Soar program consumed $430 million of the US taxpayer's money. However, it never flew.

Cancelled less than two weeks after President Kennedy's assassination, the Dyna-Soar (or X-20) was consigned to oblivion by the stroke of a pen.

Today, much of the research and technology acquired during the Dyna-Soar program is still valid. Some of it went into the Space Shuttle and some is still being used as background for the USAF Falcon program and NASA’s Orbital Space Plane (OSP).

The story of Dyna-Soar is one of the great "what-ifs" of American aerospace history. If it had been seen to completion it might have seen service as a weapon, a shuttle, a life-boat for the space station, a tourist vehicle, or in its proposed advanced versions even a conveyance for regular trips to a moon base.

For the first time this book compiles many of the critical government documents that tell the story of America's extraordinary lost spacecraft.

Over 100 B&W pictures, 16 pages of color pictures and over 200 drawings and charts.

Bonus DVD-Video Includes Extremely rare footage of the Dyna-Soar program, including pressure suit tests, simulator tests with Wally Schirra, Gus Grissom, Neil Armstrong and others, film of the lost prototype, USAF documentaries and more!

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Collector's Guide Publishing Inc; Pap/DVD edition (July 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1896522955
• ISBN-13: 978-1896522951
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #466,415 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This is item 35 in The Apogee Books Space Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Little Known Project from Long Ago, November 16, 2004

By	John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Way back in my college days, I first read of the Dyna-Soar project. Dyna-Soar was being pushed then as a Fractional Orbit Bombardment System (FOBS). It was to be launched by a massive booster, go into orbit, reach its target and drop an atomic bomb on it. Then the program got cancelled.

In this book it appears that the program had no real direction. It was a space plane, it was a research vehicle, it was recon vehicle, it was a shuttle, it was part of the Apollo program. The opinion is expressed that Robert McNamara cancelled the program because no one could tell him what he was getting for the money being spent. I suspect this is true, but I also expect that this was only part of the story. At the time there was a little thing going on called the Viet Nam war that was beginning to suck up a lot of money. The Apollo program was going strong, also expensive. President Johnson wanted money for his War on Poverty. Finally, one of the Anti Missile Treaties signed by the US and the USSR prohibited FOBS.

This book covers the Dyna-Soar program through reprinting the official documentation that flowed between the Air Force, NASA and the Contractors. There is very little analysis of what happened. As a collection of documents, this is the raw material that gives the unvarnished truth.

There's room here for another book that would give more of the political aspects. Could we have built it then? Could we build it now? Maybe we should give the project to Burt Rutan and Scaled Composites - The Dyna-Soar bird looked a lot like their Space Ship One.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Winner From Apogee, October 17, 2003

By	"tankmodeler" (Brampton, ON, CAnada) - See all my reviews

Our friends at Apogee books continue to peel the cobwebs away from the history of the space program and provide us all with unique insights into the workings of these pivotal programs and vehicles.

The X-20 was one of the more interesting "might have beens" in the early days of the space race and that it was never built has more to say about the inability of the Air Force and the US government to agree upon its actual role than anything inadequate about the vehicle itself. Because it was never completed and, thus, never flew, information on the Dyna Soar has always been hard to come by with only small articles and snippets of information surfacing from time to time. Here in one book is a vast compendium of copied primary source material relating to this program. Copies of reports, drawings, photographs and even, on the DVD, movie film relating to the development of this intreguing vehicle.

Those who have seen and enjoyed other titles in the Apogee line of "NASA Mission Reports" will find the same format here. If you are looking for an analytical history of the program with learned discussions of the reasonings behind the political changes that ultimately killed the program, this is not the book for you. This book is really a collection of archival papers with no modern analysis added. In many ways this is the purest way to view history as it allows the reader to make up their own mind, at least regarding the material presented.

Very highly recommended to all space and technical history fans.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Winner From Apogee, October 17, 2003

By	"tankmodeler" (Brampton, ON, CAnada) - See all my reviews

Our friends at Apogee books continue to peel the cobwebs away from the history of the space program and provide us all with unique insights into the workings of these pivotal programs and vehicles.

The X-20 was one of the more interesting "might have beens" in the early days of the space race and that it was never built has more to say about the inability of the Air Force and the US government to agree upon its actual role than anything inadequate about the vehicle itself. Because it was never completed and, thus, never flew, information on the Dyna Soar has always been hard to come by with only small articles and snippets of information surfacing from time to time. Here in one book is a vast compendium of copied primary source material relating to this program. Copies of reports, drawings, photographs and even, on the DVD, movie film relating to the development of this intreguing vehicle.

Those who have seen and enjoyed other titles in the Apogee line of "NASA Mission Reports" will find the same format here. If you are looking for an analytical history of the program with learned discussions of the reasonings behind the political changes that ultimately killed the program, this is not the book for you. This book is really a collection of archival papers with no modern analysis added. In many ways this is the purest way to view history as it allows the reader to make up their own mind, at least regarding the material presented.

Very highly recommended to all space and technical history fans.