Front:
Theodore
von Kármán
Aerospace Scientist
ISRINGTON
31
1992
20066
29
DC
Back:
THEODORE VON KARMAN
First Day of Issue: August 31, 1992
First Issue Location: Washington, D.C.
Born in Hungary in 1881, Theodore von Karman was the
son of noted Hungarian educator Maurice von Karman.
At an early age, Theodore's mathematical genius was
recognized. Never an ivory-tower intellectual, von
Karman kindled an interest in aeronautics when he and
a friend witnessed an early flight of Henri Farman, a
French aviation pioneer. By 1912, von Karman was
director of the Aeronautical Institute of Aachen in Ger-
many. He remained there until 1930, when he was
invited to become director of the Guggenheim Aeronau-
tical Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology.
He became a citizen in 1936. In the ensuing years, he
pioneered rocket research, becoming co-founder of the
present NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and participat-
ing in the development of the spontaneously-ignited
liquid propellants used in the Apollo missions 25 years
later. During his lifetime, many laboratories were named
after von Karman, and in 1970 — seven years after his
death—a crater on the Moon was given his name as well.
No. 92-113
First Day of Issue Postcard Collection"
©1992 Fleetwood® Cheyenne, WY 82008-0001
Original painting for the First Day of Issue Postcard by Dennis Lyall
Heelwood
