Spaceship Handbook

Spaceship Handbook

Rocket and Spacecraft Designs of the 20th Century: Fictional, Fact & Fantasy

By Jack Hagerty

Many great ideas come from all those sci-fi rockets from the movies. This book catelogs them and puts them all in one spot for your easy reference. Not only do you get full-color photographs of them, but you'll get dimensioned drawings that make recreating these rockets in model form much easier.

This massive 534 page book is written with the rocket modeler in mind. The futuristic spaceship selected for inclusion into the book lend themselves to be turned into flying rockets. They are generally stable-looking because they are long cylindrical in shape, and have fins at the rear of the rocket.

In the preface of the book, the author, Jack Hagarty writes: "This books follows the fomat established by Peter Alway's Rockets of the World. ... All of the subjects in this book are ships of the imagination; the imaginations of scientists and engieers, the imaginations of authors and artists, and the imaginations of movie and TV produceers. ... This book is for scale modelers who wish to build flying versions of their favorite craft."

Here is what you'll find in the book. Start with a spaceship design entry about a particular vehicle. In that section, you'll read some background information about that vehicle - the who, what, where, when, why and how. Then for the fictional entries the story is explained; such as how it was used in the movie. The vehicle is described in exquisite detail, which includes an epilogue by the author; his personal thoughts and any other pertinent information about the spaceship. Then there is a dimensioned data drawing with details about the rocket's appearance, to aid modelers who may want to build the rocket. You'll also find a box labeled "Modeler's Note" which contains tips and a photo/design (if applicable) that may help you in making your own model version of the spaceship. Think of this as the tricks that other modelers have learned, so that you don't have to repeat the same mistakes that they did. Finally, there is a small chart called "Quickspec" that lays out some basic information about the rocket clearly, like the year it was created, the designer, the height and weight, and so on.

When the 20th Century dawned, the spaceship was a fantasy. By the time it closed, it was a commodity. See how one of humanity's oldest dreams became astounding reality.

The driving force behind this evolution was imagination: The imagination of scientists and engineers, the imagination of authors and artists, the imagination of movie and TV producers. Despite hordes of detractors, their collective vision listed us off of this planet in these ships of the imagination which led directly to our making our first actual teetering steps into the cosmos.

Spaceflight historian and rocket enthusiast Jack Hagerty chronicles the evolution of the spacecraft during the century by examining 75 of them; some serious, some whimsical, some terrifying, and all fascinating. Jack delves into the background of each design, examining the motivations and influences on the designers. Each ship is described and analyzed in detail. Each entry includes a data drawing by Jon Rogers sufficient for hobbyists and/or craftsmen to build a version of their own.

Who Is This Book For?

This book makes a great gift for model rocket hobbyists, sci-fi fans and spaceflight enthusiasts.

If you've ever watched a science fiction movie and seen a spaceship in it and said "I think that would look like a fun model to build" then this book is for you.

You'll even see the spaceship visions of rocket pioneers like Wernher Von Bruan, Willey Ley, Hermann Oberth, Eugen Sänger and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky.

 

 

This book is a great addition to your space library. It is a valuable chronicle about how space and space travel perceptions evolved over a century. This book supplements those historical books on your shelf, because it examines an alternate side of the space travel - beginning with the theoreticians like Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Hermann Oberth, and Werner von Braun, then transitioning into pop culture and the entertainment industry, and finally ending with actual rockets that never quite made it to the launch pad. This is a fun and informative resource to add to your collection.