This never-before-printed science fiction novel by the original "rocket man," Wernher von Braun, combines technical fact with a human story line in the way that only a true dreamer can realize. Encompassing the entire story of the journey, this novel moves from the original decision for a Mars mission, through the mission planning, the building of the mighty space ships, the journey, the amazing discoveries made on Mars, and the return home. The author's attention to the actions and feelings of the characters — both those who went and those who stayed behind — makes this an adventure of human proportions, rather than merely another fanciful tale. This exclusive von Braun treasure comes complete with an appendix of his original technical drawings, made in the late 1940s, on which the story's plot is based.

Очередная подборка «Исторической серии ТМ» знакомит читателей с первыми отечественными мотоциклами.

Рисунки выполнены Михаилом Петровским.

Под редакцией: доктора технических наук, профессора Б. М. ФИТТЕРМАНА, доктора технических наук, главного конструктора производственного объединения «Ижмаш» В. А. УМНЯШКИНА, председателя Федерации мотоспорта СССР, постоянного члена Международной федерации мотоспорта В. В. РОГОЖИНА.

Коллективный консультант: ордена Трудового Красного Знамени Политехнический музей.

Очередная подборка рубрики «Историческая серия ТМ» рассказывает о развитии техники пожаротушения в России.

Ведет рубрику Олег КУРИХИН, ведущий научный сотрудник Института истории естествознания и техники РАН.

Очередная подборка «Исторической серии ТМ» знакомит читателей с первыми автомобилями.

Рисунки выполнены Михаилом Дмитриевым.

В рамках рубрики «Историческая серия ТМ» автомобильный журналист Вадим Липатов рассказывает о наиболее интересных вездеходах различного назначения, созданных отечественными конструкторами.

Очередная подборка рубрики «Историческая серия ТМ» рассказывает о развитии автобусной техники в СССР.

Ведет рубрику Олег Курихин, ведущий научный сотрудник Института истории естествознания и техники РАН.

Рисунки Михаила Дмитриева.

NEW FROM THE NYT BESTSELLING AVIATION HISTORIAN

At the dawn of the Cold War, a band of WWII aces gathered in the Mojave Desert on a Top Secret quest to break the sound barrier. The true story of what happened in those skies has never been told.

Speed. In 1947, it represented the difference between victory and annihilation.

After Hiroshima, the ability to deliver a nuclear device to its target faster than one’s enemy became the singular obsession of American war planners. And so, in the earliest days of the Cold War, a highly classified program was conducted on a desolate air base in California’s Mojave Desert. Its aim: to push the envelope of flight to new frontiers. There gathered an extraordinary band of pilots, including Second World War aces Chuck Yeager and George Welch, who risked their lives flying experimental aircraft to reach Mach 1, the so-called sound barrier, which pilots called “the demon.”

Shrouding the program in secrecy, the US military reluctantly revealed that the “barrier” had been broken two months later, after the story was leaked to the press. The full truth has never been fully revealed — until now.

Chasing the Demon, from decorated fighter pilot and acclaimed aviation historian Dan Hampton, tells, for the first time, the extraordinary true story of mankind’s quest for Mach 1. Here, of course, is twenty-four-year-old Captain Chuck Yeager, who made history flying the futuristic Bell X-1 faster than the speed of sound on October 14, 1947. Officially Yeager was the first to achieve supersonic flight, but drawing on new interviews with survivors of the program, including Yeager’s former commander, as well as declassified files, Hampton presents evidence that a fellow American — George Welch, a daring fighter pilot who shot down a remarkable sixteen enemy aircraft during the Pacific War — met the demon first, though he was not favored to wear the laurels, as he was now a civilian test pilot and was not flying the Bell X-1.

Chasing the Demon sets the race between Yeager and Welch in the context of aviation history, so that the reader can learn and appreciate their accomplishments as never before.