Occupation Aeronautical Engineer | Name Jaromir Astl | |
Born 1922 (age 92–93) Czechoslovakia | ||
Jaromir "Jerry" Astl (born 1922) was a Czechoslovakian aeronautical engineer and explosive engineer who helped design the American Project Orion nuclear propulsion spacecraft in the 1950s and 60s.
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Career
Astl was born in 1922. After earning a degree in aeronautics in German-occupied Czechoslovakia, he worked as a engineer on the development of the Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe jet fighter during World War II. At the same, Astl was a member of the Czech resistance movement involved in sabotaging communication lines with high explosives. He eventually went underground and joined the resistance movement full-time until the end of war. Following the war, Astl came under suspicion of dissidence by the new communist government and he eventually escaped through Soviet-occupied Austria. Astl arrived in the United States in April 1949 and worked in Baltimore, Maryland at a series of odd jobs including in a shoe factory, a printing plant and as a movie theater projectionist. In 1955, he obtained American citizenship and moved to the San Diego, California where he was employed as an aeronautical engineer with Rohr, Inc. working on the Lockheed Electra. He then moved to Ryan Aeronautical and Douglas Aircraft Company to work on the DC-8.
Asti was hired by General Atomic after it received funding to develop Project Orion. Astl's work on Project Orion included three papers: Multi-ICBM Weapon System (November 1959), Nuclear Pulse-Propelled Vehicle Launching System (May 1960) and Split-Cylinder Long-Stroke Shock Absorber System (February 1961). His other major contribution was a proposed high-explosive test facility on the bluffs above La Jolla at Torrey Pines, San Diego. Jerry worked alongside Morris Scharff and Brian Dunne on the explosive experiments for Project Orion.
Astl left General Atomic in 1972 and became an independent consultant. He owns several patents, which include "Electromagnetic forming element" and "Differential pressure gauge".
Documentary
Asti was interviewed about his work with Project Orion in two television documentaries: History Undercover: Code Name Project Orion (1999) and To Mars by A-Bomb: The Secret History of Project Orion (BBC, 2003).