
After spending World War I in the Austro-Hungarian fledgling air corps, where he developed the first ever helicopter, tethered to the ground, that was able to maintain hovering flight, von Kármán returned to Aachen where he led what became one of Europe’s major aerodynamics research centers. After philanthropist Daniel Guggenheim funded a new aeronautical laboratory at Cal Tech in 1926, Robert Millikan offered von Kármán its directorship, which von Kármán accepted in 1930 in part due to the rise of Nazism and antisemitism in Germany. His Cal Tech laboratory, the most prominent in the world of aeronautical sciences, became the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
By the end of his scientific career during which he made major contributions to aviation and space technology, aerodynamics, and improved aircraft performance, von Kármán had published more than 200 papers, advanced scientific collaboration from world leading scientists, developed many unique theories of aeronautical and space science, and played an important role in the creation of supersonic aircraft and ballistic missiles. In 1963, President Kennedy awarded von Kármán the first National Medal of Science.

Edson first met Theodore von Kármán in 1956 when he interviewed him for an article the Saturday Evening Post published in 1957. They became friends and during a visit at his Pasadena home, von Kármán asked Edson to help him write his autobiography — von Kármán later said “Lee writes and I read” — which Edson completed in 1967, four years after von Kármán’s death.
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