This collection consists of 51 of Boris E. Chertok's diaries, covering the years from 1945 to 1988. The diaries, all in Russian, are handwritten and are in small notebooks of various sizes and types. Some of the diaries have loose pages or loose covers and each diary has a paper cover note pasted to the outside of the notebook. The 1945 diary contains Chertok's notes on the examination of German rockets and sites in Germany. The collection also contains the envelopes, with notes in Russian, that the diaries came in. Finally, the collection contains a manuscript draft of Chertok's autobiography, Rockets and People, in Russian. The manuscript is largely handwritten, but contains some typewritten pages.
Biographical / Historical:
Dr. Boris E. Chertok is a former Soviet rocket engineer whose early work included designing the first Soviet aircraft with a rocket engine, and collaboration with the designer of the Katyusha rocket. During World War II, Chertok worked on developing Soviet heavy bombers and on rocket technology. In 1945, Dr. Chertok founded the Rabi Institute in which was appointed by Joseph Stalin to be the organization responsible for assimilating World War II German rocket technology. Chertok was assigned to Sergei Korolev's NII-88 institute in August 1946 and was named Deputy Chief Designer in 1956, a position he would hold with that bureau and its successors until his retirement in 1992. During the Cold War, Chertok worked on the control systems for the SS-6 Missile (R-7, Sapwood) and the Vostok, Voskhod, and Soyuz spacecraft programs. In the 1990s, Chertok published his autobiography, Rockets and People. After leaving the reorganized Energia enterprise in 1992, Chertok worked remained active as a professor in Moscow.
Provenance:
Boris Chertok, Purchase, Purchased by NASM and Arthur M. Dula in 1997, transferred from the Space History Department to the Archives in 2009
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access.
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests
Captured German Documents (World War II): Fort Eustis Library (FE) Microfilm
Creator:
United States. Army. Ordnance Department. Ordnance Research and Development Translation Center Search this
Extent:
3.4 Cubic feet (17 boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Microfilms
Date:
bulk 1938-1945
Summary:
This collection consists of microfilm copies of documents relating to research and development work conducted by the Ordnance Office of the German Army at the research station at Peenemünde, as well as document listings and indexes of those documents prepared by United States Army's Ordnance Research and Development Translation Center at Fort Eustis, VA.
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of an original and use copy of the Accession List (5 volumes each), as well as Author and Subject Indexes to Volumes I through III of the Accession List, and 71 rolls of 35mm microfilm of FE documents from the Fort Eustis library.
Arrangement:
Series 1 consists of printed copies of the listings and indexes compiled by the Ordnance Research and Development Translation Center at Fort Eustis, with use-copy photocopies filed as a group before the original documents, which were printed on fragile wood-pulp paper. Entries in the Accession List are organized by a unique subject classification numbering system which is explained in the Subject Index to Volumes I, II, and III. Each entry in the Accession List provides both the original German and a translated English title for the document, publication information, an abstract, and lists the document (ARCH or FE) number.
Series 2 consists of 71 rolls of microfilmed documents. Unfortunately there is no organizing principle to the FE document microfilm, or any such organization has been lost, although most documents are separated by blank frames on the microfilm.
Not all of the FE-numbered material in the Accession List was microfilmed. The original documents were returned to Germany in the 1950s and divided between the Deutsches Museum in Munich and the Bundesarchiv in Koblenz. For more specific information on the original FE documents, as well as on other archival materials relating to the work at Peenemünde, see Michael J. Neufeld, The Rocket and the Reich: Peeneünde and the Coming of the Ballistic Missile Era (New York: Free Press, 1995). For ARCH-numbered material held by the National Air and Space Museum, see Captured German/Japanese Air Technical Documents: Peenemünde Guided Missile (PGM) Microfilm (one series of Accession NASM.XXXX.0431).
Biographical / Historical:
At the end of World War II the Allies captured a large volume of documents relating to research and development work conducted by the Ordnance Office of the German Army, including work done at the research station at Peenemünde. The material was made available to ordnance personnel and contractors to aid US research efforts and a portion was housed in a library at Fort Eustis, VA. Most of the material in the Fort Eustis library was identified by the original Peenemünde Archiv ("ARCH") number; documents not having such numbers were arbitrarily assigned Fort Eustis Library ("FE") numbers. For wider accessibility, portions of the FE material were microfilmed by the Army, while part of the ARCH material was separately microfilmed by the Navy as the Peenemünde Guided Missile (PGM) microfilm. In addition, the Ordnance Research and Development Translation Center at Fort Eustis utilized a number of qualified German Prisoners of War to review and abstract all of the library material. From these abstracts the Ordnance Department prepared a multi-volume Accession List of German Documents Pertaining to Guided Missiles, which included over 3200 documents housed in the Fort Eustis library, including both FE and ARCH documents.
Provenance:
Unknown, from Fort Eustis?, Gift, Unknown, NASM.XXXX.0468
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access.
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests
Captured German Documents (World War II): Fort Eustis Library (FE) Microfilm, Acc. NASM.XXXX.0468, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
This collection consists of Ritchie's research files. The material consists of newspaper and magazine clippings, photos, drawings, and Soviet books detailing Russian missile and rocket development during the 1960s. The collection also includes copies of Ritchie's reports during his tenure at Bendix and manuscripts of various chapters of his book 'Rocket and Missile Systems Development in the Soviet Union.
Biographical / Historical:
Donald Jeanne Ritchie (1920- ) is a mathematician and physicist who has been active in missile guidance system design and development and in arms control and disarmament studies. He began work as a production engineer at Bell Aircraft Corp (1940-42) before joining the Design Branch of Wright Air Development Center, Wright Field, OH (1942-45), where he participated in preliminary design work on jet aircraft. Following World War II, he attended Wayne University, completing degrees in Mathematics and Physics (BS, 1949) and Applied Mathematics (MS, 1951). He spent most of the next two decades at Bendix's Research Laboratory Division (Senior Mathematician, 1949-54; Project Engineer, 1955-57; Supervisory Mathematician, 1958-65; Assistant Department Head, Surveillance, Navigation, and Guidance, 1965-67) working on missile systems. He spent several brief periods outside Bendix, at Atomic Power Development Associates (Senior Mathematician, 1954-55), Crosley Division, Avco Manufacturing Co (Supervisor, Missile Systems, 1957), and Corvy Division, Melpar Inc, Scientific Analysis Office (Branch Leader, 1957-58). He then joined the faculty of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Institute (now Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University) as Professor of Aeronautical Engineering, Director of Research, and Chairman of the Aeronautical Engineering Division (1967-?). During this time he also worked as a consultant to the United States Air Force Foreign Technical Intelligence Division and the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum.
General:
NASMrev
Provenance:
Baron von Ritchie?, Gift, unknown, XXXX-0088, unknown
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests
British rockets of the Napoleonic and Colonial Wars 1805-1901 : an account of the rockets of Congreve, Boxer and Hale taken into British service, with details of the supporting equipment and the uniforms of the British personnel engaged in rocket duties during the Napoleonic period / by C.E. Franklin
