Pedro Paulet (born July 2 1874 in Arequipa, Peru; died 1945 in Buenos Aires, Argentina) was a Peruvian scientist who in 1895 became the first person to build a liquid-fueled rocket engine.
News of this groundbreaking advance in rocketry did not surface until October 27, 1927, when a letter from Paulet appeared in an issue of the Peruvian newspaper El Comercio in which Paulet claimed legal ownership of his earlier rocket motor design. Recognizing that rocketry was beginning to boom in Europe, Paulet sought witnesses to help verify the work he said he had done years earlier. The letter was circulated across the world by a Alexander Scherschevsky, a Russian National, in summary form. Had Paulet's work been authenticated, he would today be considered the undisputed father of liquid propellant rocketry. As it is that title is more commonly attributed to Robert H. Goddard, who in 1926, flew a liquid-fueled rocket engine in a test vehicle.
Paulet also designed reaction motors in 1895, propulsion systems in 1900 and an airplane using thermoelectric batteries and rocket engines in 1902. He alluded to the use of nuclear propelled rockets for flights to the moon.
Trivia
The rocket Paulet I, a joint venture between the Peruvian Air Force and other Peruvian scientific entities, was named in Paulet's honor and was launched December 27, 2006. It reached an altitude 45 km and traveled at five times the speed of sound. This is Peru's first venture into space. Future plans include putting a satellite into orbit.
Literature
- The alleged contributions of Pedro E. Paulet to liquid-propellant rocketry ORDWAY, NASA, Washington Essays on the History of Rocketry and Astronautics, Vol. 2 p 25-41 (SEE N77-33048 23-99); United States; 1977
External links
Other pages about Peruvian scientists
-Antonio Raimondi -Barton Zwiebach -Ernesto Bustamante -Francisco Ruiz Lozano -Humberto Guerra Allison -Orlando Olcese -Pedro Paulet
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Pedro_Paulet
