Air & Space Smithsonian – September 2019

IDEAS THAT DEFY

Goddarddidn’t

attempttomakehis

“Hoopskirt”Rocket

aerodynamic.Hejust

wanteda lightweight

frametotesthis

rocketmotor.

NASAGoddardSpaceFlightCenteropenedin

Greenbelt,Maryland.

Thoughprimitive,theHoopskirtreflectedthe

visionaryscopeof Goddard’sthinking.Heproposed

a rocket-propelledvoyagetothemoon 57 years

beforeit happened,andhewasissueda patentfor

a multi-stagerocketin1914.Lessthana decade

afterthefirstflightoftheHoopskirt,helauncheda

rocketwitha motorpivotedongimbalsunderthe

influenceofa gyroscope—onegiantleaptoward

NeilArmstrong’sgiantleap.

Goddard

Hoopskirt

Rocket

WHEN PURELY FUNCTIONAL

LOOKED SOMEWHAT

FASHIONABLE

THE FOURTH TIME WAS THE CHARM
for Robert H. Goddard’s “Hoopskirt Rocket,” so
named for its resemblance to the wire-frame skirts
that had been popular among fashionable women
around the time the rocketry pioneer was born,
in 1882. He’d tried on three occasions beginning
on July 18, 1928 to get this, his second liquid-fuel
rocket design, to fly, hoping merely for a successful
demonstration of its rocket motor. But not until
December 26 did the Hoopskirt clear the launch
tower, flying 204.5 feet in 3.2 seconds over a field
near Worcester, Massachusetts.
At the top of the tepee-like structure, which
Goddard left uncovered to make it as lightweight as
possible, is the parachute container; below it is the
gasoline tank, and below the tank, the combustion
chamber and exhaust nozzle. The two cylindrical
structures near the bottom are fuel tanks containing
liquid oxygen and equipped with alcohol burners
used to maintain engine pressure.
The flimsy steel and aluminum frame was
destroyeduponitsviolentreturntotheground.
Goddard’swife,EstherChristineGoddard,donated
thereconstructedrockettotheSmithsonianin
1959.(TheSmithsonianInstitutionhadawarded
Goddarda $10,000grantforhisresearchmore
thanthreedecadesearlier.)Thatsameyear,the

80 AIR & SPACE airspacemag.com

ERIC LONG/NASM

CHRIS KLIMEK IS AN AIR & SPACE/SMITHSONIAN ASSOCIATE

EDITOR.