In 1949 , Qian Xuesen , Goddard professor at the California Institute of Technology , proposed a boost - glide hypersonic aircraft with a 3,107 - mile range . It would take rider from New York to San Francisco in a little under 45 minutes .

The transcontinental passenger carrier would have been 78.9 feet long , 16.5 foot in diameter , with a wingspread of 18.9 feet , and weighed about 48 tons , of which 36 tons consist of atomic number 1 and fluorine propellent . Taking off nearly vertically , all of the fuel would be consumed within the first 60 second of flight , at which clip the rocket would be ascend at a speed of 9,140 miles per hour and at an height of 100 miles .

Leaving New York at 12 midday , the stubby - fly ten - rider craft would travel in sub - orbital ballistic arc to an altitude of 300 miles—6 minute after spoof — before descending back into the stratosphere . It would reenter the air near Des Moines , Iowa , 1,200 statute mile from its takeoff full point . It would then glide from an altitude of 27 miles the remaining aloofness to the west coast . As it neared its name and address a 5,000 - pound thrust ramjet engine would permit a controlled landing place in San Francisco at 150 miles per hour . Time : 9:45 a.m. , 2 1/4 hours ahead of the sun and only 45 instant after leave New York .

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consequence after take - off , over New York :

Qian was convert that his plan was pragmatic . All the problems “ concerning materials , thermochemistry and chemical substance kinetics , ” among others , would be investigated by the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at Caltech . Also know as GALCIT , it eventually became JPL . Earlier , the Guggenheims had financed Robert Goddard ’s experiments in Roswell , NM .

Qian believed that the short operating time of a Eruca sativa gave it advantage over turbojet and flatulence turbine engines . “ By project for minutes , ” he say , “ instead of for thousands of hour … we can use material stressed for ultimate strength and not for … slow change[s ] in property . It can be stress six time high than material intended for foresightful operating time . ”

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125 miles above Pennsylvania :

Chesley Bonestell vividly illustrated the stages of such a flight in a pictorial clause for the October 1947 Pic clip titled“Coast to Coast in 40 Minutes . ”

Over eastern Nebraska :

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In a vaguely snide ( and short - sighted ) comment on the production of the article , the editor say : “ Speaking of daydreaming , there ’s something to stimulate the scientific - minded in a outstanding full - color picture layout [ of ] an creative person ’s conception of a rocket ship streaking through the heavens from New York to San Francisco at a rate exceeding 3,600 miles per 60 minutes . Chesley Bonestell , windy West Coast designer , travel the skyways and pored over maps for months to image what a super acid - borne rider might see on such a fantastic excursion providing , of course , that cloud , fogginess or frosted porthole did not obscure his view of the skillful former U.S.A. 500 miles below . Mr. Bonestell failed to provide us with such information as fare rates ( pending Civil Aeronautics Board opinion ) and whether babe in female parent ’ laps would ride for free . But he did count [ that the passenger would shore 2 hours 20 minutes to begin with than he took off ] . perchance it ’ll be one way of making up for sentence lost in butter and meat lines . . . ”

300 mi over Utah :

Unfortunately , there is a semisweet postscript to this story …

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Qian was born in China but came to America as a youthful serviceman , where became one of that country ’s foremost expert on rockets and high - hurrying flying theory . He was also one of the Centennial State - founders of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory . At the last of World War II , Qian embark fallen Germany with American troops so as to secure primal written document and force from the German aircraft and rocketry programs .

He apply for US citizenship in 1949 , but in a political clime rife with McCarthyism , a top - storey Chinese scientist was viewed with misgiving . He was incriminate of stag for the Red Chinese and in malice of the protest of his colleagues and want of any grounds ( a listing of “ surety codes ” turned out to be a tabular array of logarithms written in Chinese ) he was placed under house hitch and finally deported . He was n’t allowed to take any of his paper or Book with him .

In China , he became the foundation for the exploitation of the modern Taiwanese rocket and space travel program . It was a Qian - make grow skyrocket that put China ’s first orbiter into land orbit in 1970 , and in 1978 his Qian spaceplane—-the godchild of his slide - to - glide airliner—-was plunge . take the father of Taiwanese aeronautics , he died in Beijing in 2009 .

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Top illustration by Jack Coggins

extra artistic creation byChesley Bonestell

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