Giannini, Ducati and the Dawn of MPD Propulsion
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Giannini, Ducati and the Dawn of MPD Propulsion
Mariano Andrenucci ¶
m.andrenucci@alta-space.com
ABSTRACT Ducati, who opted to move to the US immediately after
the war. The vicissitudes through which they decided to
The paper presents a historical overview of the events expatriate, the events which brought them to approach the
that led to the dicovery of the magnetoplasmadynamic field of propulsion, the way in which they ended up
arc in the mid-sixties, and the role played by two working together, and the accidents of the discovery of this
characters of Italian origin: Gabriel Giannini and novel propulsion principle, have fictional aspects that
Adriano Ducati. Giannini had studied with Fermi and deserve being narrated and may hold a moral.
then immigrated to the US to become a successful Very few direct witnesses of those events are still
entrepreneur. He was the originator of the Giannini around, and the largest part of the memories of those
Scientific Corporation, which was central in research events are fading away, soon to be forgotten. This is
on arc propulsion in the fifties and early sixties. probably inevitable; nonetheless it is worthwhlile to
Giannini was joined there by Adriano Ducati, a young attempt to preserve a small part of those memories to the
and brilliant physicist who had founded the Ducati advantage of future generations.
company with his two brothers, which was later to
become a giant in motorcycle industry. Ducati was also
forced to move to the USA after the war, where he 2. THE BOURGEOIS OF THE AIR
joined Giannini in arc thruster research at Giannini’s
Plasmadyne laboratory in California. In 1963 such Gabriello (aka Gabriel) Maria Giannini, was born in 1905
activities serendipitously led to the discovery of a new in Rome. He studied with Enrico Fermi at the Institute of
type of acceleration mechanism that would later Physics of the University of Rome, where his father and
become known as the MPD arc. Aspects of that grandfather had been professors of admiralty law and
discovery are evoked based on testimonies of direct Italian literature respectively. He got his university degree
witnesses of these events.1 in July 1929, the same day as Enrico Amaldi and Ettore
Majorana, two other members of the “Via Panisperna”
group led by Enrico Fermi. Years later, he was to share
1. INTRODUCTION his wistful memoirs of this eventful period with a
reporter:1 “I was lucky enough to witness the birth of the
‘IT was the best of times, it was the worst of times’ – I atomic age, as one of Enrico Fermi’s pupils in Rome
could not find a better incipit for this paper, and not just twenty-odd years ago. Fermi formulated his discoveries in
because this probably ranks as number one in the all-time the Institute of theoretical Physics, which was housed next
list of great opening lines, but because it seems to suit the to the unheated dormitory of an old monastery in the Via
period through which the events described in this article Panisperna. Everything around us was moldy with its eight
took place particularly well; a period spanning, by and hundred years, and we were young, bound together by
large, from the mid nineteen twenties to the mid seventies, youth and by Fermi’s ageless thinking, which managed to
from the dawn of the atomic age to the first – and as yet find expression in spite of the sound of the church bells
the last – Moon landings, with the vast and tragic interlude pouring in torrents from a Romanic tower next door.”
of WWII in the middle. It was also a time of But Giannini was admittedly more a businessman and
unprecedented endeavor, creativity, enthusiasm and globe-trotter than a scientist (“Mine is the stock that
achievement. A time so extraordinary – like the one changes skies over its head.”1 He soon decided against
narrated by Dickens – to allow us to insist ‘on its being nuclear physics as a career, and set sail for adventure. In
received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of 1929 he took residence in New York, and by 1931 he had
comparison only.’ permanently immigrated to the United States. He worked
This is the story of the beginnings of Magnetoplasma- as an acoustical engineer for the Curtis Institute and Radio
dynamic (MPD) propulsion. The essence of this concept Corporation of America where he went on working for 10
emerged from the flurry of research and development years on the engineering of loudspeaker systems. But he
activities that characterized the field of propulsion – had not lost contact with the former fellows, who in the
among others – in the feverish post-Second World War meantime were pursuing their studies on atomic
era. Instrumental to the genesis of MPD propulsion were phenomena.
two characters of Italian physicists: Gabriel Giannini While working together in Rome, Fermi and his six
immigrated to the US around 1930 to become a successful associates had discovered that neutrons could be slowed
industrialist, and a brilliant young inventor, Adriano down by passage through water or paraffin and that, thus
slowed, they were much more likely to be captured by
1
Professor, Aerospace Engineering Dept., University of Pisa; other elements, making them radioactive. An Italian patent
CEO, Alta SpA, Pisa, Italy. on the method was taken out in their behalf in 1935 by
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Space Propulsion 2010, 3 - 6 May 2010, San Sebastian, Spain
Fermi's old teacher, the well-known Italian physicist Orso Russians. This outraged Giannini and made him call off
Mario Corbino. Giannini thought the process might have the suit. It was only in 1955 that the Atomic Energy
commercial value; so he started acting as business Commission, after much hesitation, awarded $300,000 to
manager for Fermi and his team, and in 1937 filed an the Italians. Besides Fermi, two of them, Franco Rasetti
application on their behalf for a similar patent in the U.S. and Emilio Segre, had in the meantime become atomic
Unfortunately, no major American company seemed to scientists in the U.S. The fourth, Edoardo Amaldi, was still
share his enthusiasm for the slow neutrons idea. As in Rome. The fifth, Bruno Pontecorvo, was obviously not
Giannini says: “I attempted to sell the patent, and there in a position to collect his share.
were no takers. Not one! Westinghouse, General Electric, But Giannini was already sailing towards new
du Pont – they all said, ‘Ah, the process is very interesting, horizons. During the war, he had devoted all his energies
but commercially impractical and unworkable.’ 1 to learning about airplanes and manufacturing, and went to
When the Fermis disembarked in New York on the 2nd work at Lockheed. As a part of this interest in aviation,
of January 1939 they found Giannini waiting for them on after the war he went on developing the aircraft
the dock.2 The patent, No. 2,206,634,3 was granted in instruments that were later to be manufactured by his own
1940. By the start of World War II, four of the five company.
scientists who had applied for the patent had escaped from
Mussolini's Italy and come to the U.S.
Fig. 2 Dr. Wernher von Braun Autograph on a
12/19/63 MSFC Routing slip attached to a typed letter
from Dr. Ernst Stuhlinger, regarding Dr. Giannini’s
request for an appointment with Dr. von Braun and
Dr. Stuhlinger about about a new and very promising
Fig. 1 Gabriel Maria Giannini4 (‘…a stocky, tanned, idea of space vehicle propulsion.7
eloquent, and smiling-eyed italian … ; “Yachting,” said
Giannini, with a blinding flash of teeth …’1).
In 1945 Giannini founded Giannini Controls Corporation
Shortly after both they and their patent seemed to which manufactured aircraft and missile guidance systems.
disappear from sight. The slow neutron process was the In 1961 after this company went public and expanded,
basis for the development of nuclear reactors. It was also Giannini left to establish Giannini Scientific Corporation, a
necessary for the production of plutonium, the primary
holding company for technological industries, later to
fissile isotope used in nuclear weapons. Thus, the whole become Geotel. He personally directed the corporate
matter become a classified part of the Manhattan Project. research laboratory at Plasmadyne in California, where he
In 1942 Fermi saw his neutrons start up the first reactor in developd his early work on arc thrusters. His pioneering
Chicago. By 1945, when the first bomb went off, Giannini work did not remain limited to the laboratory but extended
had almost forgotten his patent. The government had to promoting and popularizing the potential of new thruster
expropriated it but was reluctant in granting compensation. concepts, as the articles published on Scientific American
Acting as agent for Fermi and his fellow-discoverers, on the "Plasma jet" 5 in 1957 and on “Electric Propulsion”
Giannini took legal action against the government for ten in 19616 clearly show. So, in the late fifties and early ‘60s
million dollars in damages. In 1950, before the case could Giannini came to be widely recognized as one of the
come to trial, Bruno Pontecorvo, one of the six, forerunners of EP. We have evidence that he tried to
disappeared in Finland, presumably to work for the
advocate the merits of his ideas with Stuhlinger and Von
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Space Propulsion 2010, 3 - 6 May 2010, San Sebastian, Spain
Braun. A leaflet that went to auction on the Internet on Oct Encouraged by the success of this experiment, on July 4,
3rd, 2004,7 by LiveAuctioneers as Lot 798, and whose final 1926 the Ducati family established the Società Scientifica
outcome could not be ascertained, includes a typed letter Radio Brevetti Ducati (Ducati Scientific Radio Patent
from Dr. Ernst Stuhlinger to Dr. von Braun with a copy to Company). The production of capacitors and electronic
Mr. Williams, DIR., regarding a recent phone conversation components was followed, in later years, by the creation of
Dr. Stuhlinger had with a Dr. Gabriel Giannini “about a a vast research division to add optics and mechanics,
new and very promising idea of space vehicle propulsion beginning to manufacture cameras and lenses as well as
using a hydrogen plasma that would produce a thrust of cash registers and electric razors.
high density” (Fig. 2).
Dr. Stuhlinger suggests in his letter that, due to Dr.
von Braun's "tight" schedule, he might meet with Dr.
Giannini during his next visit to California. The routing
slip back to Dr. Stuhlinger reads "I agree with Ernst. Let
him talk to Dr. Giannini first. FW 12/63." Dr. von Braun
has added, in pencil: "Yes, please do. If it's worthwhile, I'll
see look him up next time I'm on the West Coast."
We do not know whether the contact actually took
place and if so, what followed from that. What we know
for sure is that Giannini was regarded at that time as a
major actor in R&D activities regarding advanced
propulsion systems. At this point the stage was set for the Fig. 4 The laying of the first stone of the Ducati plant at
events that followed. Borgo Panigale; June 1st, 1935.
Adriano was the technical-scientific mastermind of the
3. ENTER DUCATI company, while his brother Bruno had taken on the role of
Administrative and Financial Director. Since the company
The group of scientists working on arc thruster at Giannini was expanding so rapidly, in 1935 they purchased 120,000
Scientific Corporation had in the meantime been joined by square meters of land in Borgo Panigale, at the northwest
another young italian researcher: Adriano Ducati. Born in edge of Bologna. On the 1st of June of that year, in the
Bologna in 1903, he was one of the three sons of Antonio presence of city authorities, the first stone was laid of what
Cavalieri Ducati, an industrial engineer who had made his would become the current plant in Via Cavalieri Ducati 3,
career in the later part of the 19th century, during the whose architecture was designed by Bruno Cavalieri
height of the Italian industrial revolution. Ducati himself.
Fig. 3 Young Ducati with his device
Fig. 5 Adriano Cavalieri Ducati
In 1922 Adriano Ducati, a nineteen-year-old student of
physics, was conducting a series of experiments on the The vicissitudes of the Ducati company continued through
newly emerging science of radio and its practical the stormy years of WW II. At the start of the Second
applications. On 15 January 1924 he had managed, with World War the plant was further expanded to house a
the equipment he had built, to establish radio contact with workforce of over 5,000, but it was heavily damaged by
the U.S. from his home in Bologna. This was such an Allied bombardments on October 12, 1944 and production
extraordinary event at the time, that during the 1st Italian stopped until the second half of 1945. Immediately after
Radio Technician Congress held in Bologna on the 7th of the war, the Ducati brothers were arrested for collaboration
May 1934, Guglielmo Marconi insisted on visiting the with the Fascists. Only minutes before they were to be shot
Ducati brothers at their laboratory in Viale Guidotti 51. As by firing squad, their execution was suspended.9 They
he was leaving, more than two hours later, Marconi left were later cleared of all charges. The plant was already
them an autographed photo, which is still there.8,8 partly rebuilt by the end of 1945, with production of the
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Space Propulsion 2010, 3 - 6 May 2010, San Sebastian, Spain
the first motorcycle manufactured at Borgo Panigale Experiments with plasma acceleration had been started
starting in March 1946. Named Cucciolo (‘puppy') because by M.U.Clauser at Space Technology Laboratories in
of the noise the engine's exhaust made, the motor was the1950s as reported in chapter 18 of “Space Technology”
initially sold in a kit to be fitted to a bicycle, but it was edited by H. Seifert. 13
soon sold as a complete model. Unfortunately, due to The study of magnetoplasmadynamics became more
damage suffered during the war, the Ducati brothers found and more fashionable in the late 1950s. At each of the
themselves unable to run the company, and ceded it to the former NACA laboratories – Lewis, Ames, and Langley –
state in 1948. research in magnetoplasmadynamics grew considerably in
Adriano Cavalieri Ducati moved to California, where the period just before the reorganization of the NACA into
he got in touch with Giannini and became involved in his NASA and gained further strength afterwards.
research activities. A few years later we find Ducati as A detailed history of MPD activities at Langley, from
Technical Director of the Special Projects Group at which the information included here is taken, has been
Giannini Scientific Corporation, later to be known as compiled by J. R. Hansen.12 The MPD branch at Langley
Plasmadyne Division of Geotel, Inc., Santa Ana, was headed by Mike Ellis, a NACA veteran who had come
California. to work at Langley in 1939, and over the course of his
career at the laboratory had been involved in pioneering
work on the aerodynamics of jet engines, ramjets, and
4. PRELUDES supersonic inlets and nozzles. By the end of 1962, the
MPD Branch comprised almost 50 staff members (of
The premises of MPD thruster discovery were laid down which 27 professionals) divided into four teams or
through early arcjet and magnetohydrodynamic research. sections: Plasma Applications, headed by Paul W. Huber;
Work on arc thrusters came about almost naturally from Space Physics, led by British physicist David Adamson;
the field of conventional rockets, as an alternative way to Robert Hess's Plasma Physics Section and George P.
heat the propellant, as opposed to the use of the heat Wood's Magnetohydrodynamics Section. These sections
released by chemical reactions. Heating the working gas (and their section heads) remained in place until the
by means of an electric arc offered the additional bonus of dissolution of the MPD Branch in 1970.
making it possible to adjust the power input independently These groups focused on a variety of lines related to
of the mass flow rate. Extensive research activities were MPD ranging from the study of reentry problems of
started in many public and private laboratories, which intercontinental ballistic missiles, to propulsion and power
brought, in a relatively short time, to the experimentation generation systems, to controlled thermonuclear fusion.
of a wide variety of configurations and operating regimes. In a NASA report published in 1971, George Wood
G. M. Giannini began work with arc-heated hydrogen and his colleagues reported that their crossed-field
engines at Plasmadyne in 195710. This early work at accelerator had achieved an exit velocity of 30,176 feet per
Plasmadyne was conducted for the Air Force Office of second and noticed that their device "appears to be the
Scientific Research. A. Kantrowitz began experiments largest and highest velocity nonpulsed linear plasma
with arcjets and plasma acceleration at AVCO soon accelerator" to attain "an operable status."14
afterwards. NASA LeRC sponsored several studies of arc- While trying to solve problems in the crossed-field
heated hydrogen engines and by 1963, AVCO, accelerator design, Langley's experts conceived and
Plasmadyne and General Electric all had developed explored several other methods for accelerating plasmas.
arcjets.11 The most promising of these was known as the "linear
What they and many others were trying was to find Hall-current accelerator." Beginning in the late 1950s, a
way to obtain arcjets which could operate safely at very small group of Langley researchers led by Robert V. Hess,
high currents and achieve very high levels of Isp without an applied physicist from Austria who had come to work
melting down. But the situation seemed stuck because it for the NACA in 1945, began working on various tpes of
seemed that there was no way to obtain that. Hall accelerator. Throughout the 1960s, Hess and his
In the meantime, the study of the motion of ionized associates refined the linear Hall accelerator, making
gases in the presence of magnetic fields had been in extensive experimental and theoretical studies of the
progress for considerable time as a field by its own. By the physics and overall performance of their devices.
late 1940s, this new field had become a major international However, the linear Hall-current accelerator possessed
focus for scientific research. The new field, which was limitations that Hess and his colleagues could not
really a subfield of the large, complicated, and still circumvent, so that, as with other MPD activities at
emerging discipline of “plasma physics,” was known by a Langley, they never managed to achieve meaningful
variety of names such as “magnetohydrodynamics,” applications in space propulsion. By the late 1960s, Hess
“hydromagnetics,” “magneto-aerodynamics,” “magneto- and others in MPD shifted the focus of their work with
gasdynamics,” and “fluid electrodynamics.” 12 these accelerators to the potential application of gas lasers.
The name “magnetohydrodynamics,” or MHD, tended
to prevail and and become the standard everywere but at
the then NACA controlled Langley Research Center. 5. SERENDIPITY
There, the circle of aerodynamicists working at the center's
Gas Dynamics Laboratory thought that the name It was just in the midst of one such arcjet-related activity
magnetohydrodynamics was not appropriate. They were that the evidence of an acceleration mode differing from
not dealing with water but rather with hot gases or the expected conventional gasdynamic mechanism was
plasmas, so they coined the term "magnetoplasma- gathered, quite serendipitously, at the Giannini Scientific
dynamics." Corporation of Santa Ana, California, in 1963. Ducati
reported a remarkable change in the operating range of a
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Space Propulsion 2010, 3 - 6 May 2010, San Sebastian, Spain
Hydrogen arcjet. By drastically reducing the mass flow the arc were generating self-magnetic fields within the
and hence the chamber pressure, the arc could be caused to chamber sufficiently intense to produce substantial
diffuse over the cathode surface, and to extend far out into electromagnetic acceleration of the flow.
the exhaust stream, in which configuration the arc current
could be increased to 3000 A or more with no noticeable
structural damage, the exhaust velocity of the hydrogen
flow could be increased to values of the order of 100,000
m/s, and the overall efficiency reached 50 percent.”15,16,17
Hence, contrary to the discouraging predictions of the
early plasma propulsion experiments, Ducati had
constructed a steady electromagnetic accelerator which
required no external magnet, no preionization equipment,
and no gas seeding system, and which operated with
negligible erosion.
Fig. 7 “The elimination of the supersonic nozzle has
been our first effort. This was a difficult idea to accept
at that time; however, nozzles are gradually
disappearing as one can observe in a comparison of
contemporary geometries used in the adoption of this
principle” (left); uniformity of thermo-ionic vs
conventional arc-jet (right). (From Ducati,
Muehlberger and Giannini, 196415).
Fig. 6 The first MPD Arc (From A. Ducati, G. Giannini But it took some time for the new accelerating principle to
and T. Muhelberger, 196414). be fully clarified. The discoverers themselves noticed
“Many questions still remain unanswered. One can call the
At that time, Robert G. Jahn was already back at thrustor thermo-ionic, electro-thermal, J-cross-B, Hall-
Princeton after taking his Phd at Caltech in 1955 and Current, or cyclotron resonance, or any other descriptive
working there for some time as Assistant Professor of Jet name, but still no one can explain completely its
Propulsion. In the years spent in California, he had been mechanism.”15
involved in work at Plasmadyne and entered into Immediately following Ducati’s report, several
acquaintance with Adriano Ducati. This led to a lasting laboratories undertook confirmation experiments in which
friendship. Thus, after getting back to Princeton, he kept thruster geometry, propellant type, mass flow rate, and
interacting with Ducati, spending a period there during power level were varied. The MPD arc began to be
summer doing work with him. “The families went to the investigated at Avco–Everett Research Laboratory, Avco
beach. We worked in the laboratory and at evening I Corporation/Research and Advanced Development
joined them at the beach.”18 Jahn recollects being called by Division, Electro-Optical Systems Incorporated, Giannini
Ducati with the news of the event, and the account he had Scientific Corporation, NASA- Langley Research Center,
of the thing. “There enters a new character. His name was and NASA-Lewis Research Center.18
Erich Muehlberger. Erich Muehlberger was Adriano’s The five thrusters shown schematically in Fig. 8 are
right hand. He was a young chap, … full of ideas, and did typical of the many configurations which were found
a lot of the light work for Adriano. Muehlberger was the capable of operating in this high specific impulse domain..
guy within the lab 24/7 turning knobs, and in the process These geometries covered a wide range in both degree of
of turning knobs, one day, Muehlberger discovered that he throat constriction and magnitude and configuration of
could shut the gas flow, ... well, he was trying to get a externally applied magnetic field. However, since each of
higher specific impulse, by reducing the mass flow, he these thrusters seemed capable of a performance level at
kept reducing the mass flow and at one point, he notices: least equal to that of Ducati’s, each should logically be
“It’s off, it’s off … and the arc is still working … and regarded as a type of MPD arcjet. 20
producing thrust …” So that was the day that the so-called Anyway, after Ducati’s discovery, it took some time
thermal ionic arc was born, and the announcement you for the term Magnetoplasmadynamic to become accepted
could do this was quite an exciting voice at AVCO and in as the standard name for this new class of device.
the other places.” Bon Jahn recollects that moment: “That was George
The basic idea in passing from the thermal arcjet Seikel: activities were overseen by NASA Lewis and
concept to the MPD arc was to abandon the arc nozzle George was in charge for that. Everybody kept using
with the small throat diameter and to allow the action of different names. At one point George Seikel stepped in
electromagnetic volume forces. By increasing the power front of a contractor’s meeting at NASA Lewis and said
and decreasing mass flow the specific impulse is only ‘Enough of this! I am calling it the Magnetoplasma-
limited by the heat transfer to the electrodes, and the dynamic Arc.’ And since he was providing the money to
minimum density at which operation is possible. 19 The most of this work, everybody sat there nodding in
ensuing supposition was that the high current densities in agreement. And that was it!” 17
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Space Propulsion 2010, 3 - 6 May 2010, San Sebastian, Spain
After dabbling in racing with smaller boats he soon
moved on to ocean racing, where, in over 35 years he
accumulated world-wide experience and became a well-
known competitive sailor.22
He totalled some over 50 patents on all sort of devices.
He earned the latest the year he died, for a fiberoptic
connector. He died of a stroke in September 1989 at the
age of 83 in Rancho Mirage, near Indio, California where
he lived.23
Ducati had kept on working at Plasmadyne until 1971.
In the Bob Jahn’s words: “He was still working for Geotel,
but there was some business person, some administrator he
had to report to, and he didn’t like like that much at all …
He finally came unstuck with this Geotel operation. His
lab was not making money for Geotel at the desired rate,
and finally the whole thing just collapsed, they sold the
facility … and, I take it that it was eventually, ploughed
Fig. 8 Various MPD Thruster Configurations (from
under to expand the airport … Adriano went off to his
Clark and Jahn, 197019)
house on the beach, and did other things. I think he worked
a bit for his family back in Italy, remotely … He was
6. EPILOGUE having some significant medical problem … Eventually, I
am told, his family simply came and picked him up, and
So this is how the whole thing started. MPD propulsion in took him back to Italy where he lived out the rest of his
its steady state version soon proved prohibitive to testing life.”
in a reasonably sized facility. So a pulsed operation in Ducati went back to Italy in 1986 were he joined his
which steady conditions could be approximated by quasi- two brothers. The father of MPD propulsion died serenely
rectangular pulses emerged as a more viable approach. In in his home town in 1990.
this simplified form, the QS-MPD thruster, MPD
propulsion found a home at Princeton under the guidance
of Robert G. Jahn. Bob, who had shared with Ducati the
invention of the new device, laid the basis of the theory in
his foundational book on electric propulsion,21 putting the
basis for the training of a generation of researchers who
were going to make of MPD propulsion their vocational
field.
But the magic was gone and the golden age was now
ticking away. At the dawn of the space age, enthusiasts at
NASA and elsewhere had believed that nuclear-powered
rockets, electric propulsion systems and other advanced
space propulsion concepts might be just around the corner,
As the decade passed, the idea of the nuclear rocket was
put on the back burner and was for all intents and purposes
abandoned when NASA plans for interplanetary
exploration were abruptly cancelled in 1970 by President
Nixon. Fig. 9 The Ducati Brothers in the late ‘80s; from left,
In 1970, Edgar Cortright as part of his major Bruno, Marcello and Adriano.
reorganization of the center dissolved the MPD Branch
and put most of its people and many of their facilities A blogger who identifies himself as ‘gadfly’ in a website
under a new Space Sciences Division headed by William for Aviation buffs notices:24 “In a facility in Santa Ana,
H. Michael. Aware of MPD's practical limitations, Mike California (Plasmadyne, Inc., part of Giannini Scientific
Ellis did not complain about his branch's dissolution, nor Corp.), I was a “model maker/machinist/senior research
did any other member of his staff. technician,… Plasma spray is not new. I worked with one
As James Hansen notices in his book11, “Never before of the inventors of the system over forty years ago . . .
in the history of applied basic research at Langley had a Adriano Ducati (his family in the "old country" made
field of study promised so much, yet delivered so little.” motorcycles). Plasma spraying of various metals has been
In the meantime Giannini and Ducati had gradually used on jet engine parts for decades. The technology was
disappeared from the scene. Giannini went on with his also used to "prove" (test) the ablative heat-shield material
career of industrialist. But his true enthusiasm was sailing. on various space vehicles. Some of the folks who read this
“It is fun to borrow wind and make it take you somewhere blog have been to my shop, and seen a cross-section
else … Fifty years ago no one would have ventured to copper and brass anode, from an old 2.5 megawatt plasma
cross the ocean in a small sailboat for sport … but in generator, from back when I worked with this sort of thing
recent years the winds have been restored to their ancient … machining/assembling/testing the stuff.
dignity as masters of our pleasure. They fill our lungs, our
sails, our minds.”1
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Space Propulsion 2010, 3 - 6 May 2010, San Sebastian, Spain
“Mr. Ducati was a great little man. He would tell me what
to make (design/machine/etc.) and say, "I want it quick Conference, Philadelphia, Penn., August 31-September 2,
and dirty . . . but precise!" We did a lot of things without 1964.
17
red-tape, and without delay, on a minimum budget . . . and Ducati, A. C., Giannini, G. M. and Muehlberger, E.,
got good results.” “Recent progress in high specific impulse thermo-ionic
acceleration, ” AIAA 2nd Aerospace Sciences Meeting,
“That company is long gone. The scientists who designed January 1965.
18
the equipment, are probably long dead. The land where it R. G. Jahn, interview with author, September 2009.
19
all took place is filled with commercial buildings, and a Domitz, S., et al., “Survey of Electromagnetic
freeway infrastructure . . . not far from final approach into Accelerators for Space Propulsion,” NASA TN D-3332,
John Wayne Airport.” Lewis Research Center, March 1966.
20
Clark, K. E. and Jahn, R. G., “Quasi-steady plasma
Mr. Gadfly is probably one of tle last left who can bear acceleration,” AIAA Journal, Vol. 8, No. 2, February
witness of that time. 1970, pp. 216–220.
21
Jahn, R. G., Physics of Electric Propulsion, McGraw-
Hill, 1968.
22
Mason, C. (Ed.), The best of Sail Trim, Sheridan House
REFERENCES Inc. July 2000.
23
“Gabriel Giannini, 83, Aerospace Executive,” Obituary,
New York Times, 23 Sep 1989.
1 24
Brendan Gill and Niccolo Tucci, The Air, “Bourgeois of http://aviationcriticenthusiast.blogspot.com/2009/07/gues
the Air,” The New Yorker, May 9, 1953, p. 26. t-lecturer-for-this-weeks-class.html
2
Bernardini, C, and Bonolis, L., Enrico Fermi: his work http://eclipsecriticng.blogspot.com/2009/05/tail-end-of-
and legacy, Springer, 2004. eclipse.html .
3
“Atomic Patent,” Time Magazine , August 10, 1953. In:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,81865 _______________
3,00.html
4
Patrick Conyers, Cedar Phillips, Pasadena Museum of
History, Pasadena 1940-2008, Arcadia Publishing, 2009.
5
Giannini, G. M., “The Plasma Jet,” Scientific American,
Vol. 197, No. 2, pages 80–88; August 1957.
6
Giannini, G. M., “Electrical Propulsion in Space,”
Scientific American, Vol. 204, No. 3, pages 57–65; March
1961.
7
Live Auction Website: http://www.liveauctioneers.com/-
item/512833.
8
http://www.ducati.com/heritage/protagonisti/protagonisti_
flliducati.jhtml.
9
http://cronologia.leonardo.it/storia/biografie/ducati.htm
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