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Person of the Year: Qian Xuesen [Aviation Week]
- Thread starter mxiong
- Start date
Violet Oboe
Junior Member
Probably Qian Xuesen was the only chinese space engineer the Aviation Week guys have remotely heard of since he was educated in the US and was deported to his motherland after unfounded and slanderous spying accusations in 1955.
Though the meanwhile 96 year old doyen of China's space industry certainly deserves highest honors, Aviation Week has picked him simply as some kind of ´figure head´ for the steady progress of China in space as a whole.
Though the meanwhile 96 year old doyen of China's space industry certainly deserves highest honors, Aviation Week has picked him simply as some kind of ´figure head´ for the steady progress of China in space as a whole.
The reason why Qian was chosen was not just because of his contribution to China's space program. He was the co-founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Caltech and one of the first students of Theodore von Kármán.
After WWII he was one of the few people sent by the military to investigate research facilities in Germany and brought back German scientists such as Wernher von Braun and Rudolph Hermann. If he stayed in the US he would be one of the founding fathers of the US space program too. That's how important he was.
After WWII he was one of the few people sent by the military to investigate research facilities in Germany and brought back German scientists such as Wernher von Braun and Rudolph Hermann. If he stayed in the US he would be one of the founding fathers of the US space program too. That's how important he was.
Overdue Acknowledgement
In broad terms, I have to agree with Violet Oboe on this subject. The selection of Qian Xuesen was also an acknowledgment that China has "come of age" in aerospace.
That does not diminish the personal contributions of Qian Xuesen, by any means - but it is also a long overdue acknowledgement that China is fast becoming an aircraft and spacecraft industrial power to be reckoned with over the coming decades.
In broad terms, I have to agree with Violet Oboe on this subject. The selection of Qian Xuesen was also an acknowledgment that China has "come of age" in aerospace.
That does not diminish the personal contributions of Qian Xuesen, by any means - but it is also a long overdue acknowledgement that China is fast becoming an aircraft and spacecraft industrial power to be reckoned with over the coming decades.
Skywatcher
Captain
I wonder why the McCarthyites never had enough sense to at least leave the scientists around. Explanations?