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n David Ward ’46 modeling the Jet XX Vest in
1962. H. Gates, Pictorial Division AMSC, Redstone
Arsenal, Ala.
For the .001 percenters, the option to fly
around with a jet vest or rocket belt has
become a reality as these devices have
become commercially available in the
last year or two. They also have an interesting
Cold War history, in which one
Taft grad plays a prominent role.
Back in the early 1960s, Dave Ward ’46
was employed by the Army Missile
Command at Redstone Arsenal,
Alabama, where he helped write the
patent for one of the first rocketpacks.
“I was a ‘patent adviser’ in the rocket/
propellant section,” explains Ward. He
had transferred there from the Patent
Office in Washington, D.C., where he
Rocket Man
had previously examined potential patents
from Redstone Arsenal.
“As part of the rocket team at
Redstone, I worked mainly with my
friend Arthur Rudolph and physicist
Thomas Moore, and occasionally with
Wernher von Braun,” adds Ward. “While
von Braun was working toward putting
a man in a rocket, Moore worked on the
notion of a rocket-powered man.”
Moore called his device a Jet Vest and
flew it for the first time in 1952. Though
limited military funds would not encompass
a completely finished model, Moore
proved that a man-rocket combination
was feasible. When he needed someone
to model the device, he turned to Ward.
The team filed and finally received
a patent (#3150847) for the Jet Vest, a
human-propelled rocket, in 1964.
Rudolph followed von Braun to
NASA, where he eventually became
project director of the Saturn V rocket
program, which successfully lifted
off from Kennedy Space Center on
November 9, 1967—Rudolph’s birthday.
The American military funded a
parade of personal-flight experiments
after World War II, explains a recent
article in National Geographic (“Personal
Flight: If we only had wings”). None
“fulfilled the mission of safe, maneuverable,
or stealthy flight. Consider rocket
belts. The wearer of the belt would fly
less than a minute because of limits on
the fuel a person can carry. Plus, the device
is expensive, noisy, and notoriously
difficult to control.”
The hand controls on the Jet Vest were
operable, explains Ward, and did allow
some degree of control, but the military
did not extend Moore’s funding for developing
a self-contained system—even
though it had the support of von Braun.
The Jet Vest was considered a “far-out”
device or even laughable by some in the
military. When the military later decided
to investigate a “battlefield mobility
device,” they invited contractors, but as
Moore reported, “they didn’t invite us.”
Sources: ngm.nationalgeographic.com/
2011/09/personal-flight/shute-text
www.thunderman.net/history/arsenal.php
Icon/Muse
The latest show by artist Marc
Leuthold ’80 opened in November at
the Priebe Gallery of the University
of Wisconsin at Oshkosh. The exhibit
consists of figural and carved work exhibited
in conjunction with a text from
The Last Days of Socrates by Plato.
These figural works were based on
internet images of well-known personalities—including
Elizabeth Taylor,
Marilyn Monroe and Yoko Ono.
“These people all led fascinating
lives,” explains Leuthold, “and
they each possessed prized enduring
characteristics that transcended their
appearance. My premise was to create
renditions using rapid gestural
movements. I wanted something fresh,
something more than a physical
resemblance. They are abstracted
figures, somewhat influenced by
Medardo Rosso and Rodin.
Leuthold is
well known for his
sculptural wheels.
In this case, he used
internet images of the
iconic women and
transcribed a contour
drawing of each to the
wheel surface. Two of
the wheels are porcelain
and one of them
is translucent in the
central area of the wheel—“something
I have been working towards for years,”
says Leuthold.
“The connection of Plato’s text with
my sculptures hinges on immortality
and life choices,” he adds.
“A life well lived is something
we all think about.
Would that we could all
use our time as well as
Socrates, Plato—and
many of the women who
are my icons and muses.”
v Yoko Ono by Marc
Leuthold ’80
6 Taft Bulletin Winter 2012