Robert Truax

Life As a teenager, Truax was inspired by Robert Goddard articles in Popular Mechanics magazine to build his own rockets while residing in Alameda, California. From 1936 to 1939, midshipman Truax tested liquid-fuel rocket motors and published a February 1939 report in Astronautics. By early 1943, the Truax group had developed a thrust JATO using hypergolic fuel before the introduction of solid fuel JATO units.

From 1955 to 1958, Truax was assigned to the United States Air Force under General Bernard A. Schriever, where Truax and Dr. Adolf Thiel headed the initial design studies and IRBM specifications for the PGM-17 Thor missile. Truax subsequently worked on the Navy's Viking rocket and UGM-27 Polaris missile. Truax studied the sea launching of rockets, such as the Sea Bee and Sea Horse projects. After serving as 1957 American Rocket Society president, Truax retired from the United States Navy in 1959 and headed the Aerojet-General Advanced Development Division and Aerojet's Sea Dragon project.

Truax died from prostate cancer at his home in Valley Center, California on September 17, 2010.

Truax Engineering In 1966 Robert Truax founded Truax Engineering, which studied sea launch concepts similar to the earlier Sea Dragon—the Excalibur, the SEALAR, and the Excalibur S. for a pilot study. Truax was looking for volunteers with enough money to help fund the effort and who wished to fly aboard his rocket. He got thousands of volunteers, but few of them had the financial resources. One person selected to fly in the rocket was engineer Jeana Yeager, who worked for Truax Engineering. Peruvian-born Daniel J. Correa was at one point announced as the first pilot. Among others who offered some financing and who went through some of his training were Ronald Beller, a pilot from Kentucky, Martin Yahn, Ray Upton, and Fell Peters, all of southern California. Ultimately, no one flew in the Volksrocket.

The rocket used surplus components and was tested through 1991.

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