A brilliant mathematics student, Theodor von Karman seemed destined to lead a quiet professorial life until the day he saw a plane fly for over a mile. From then on his fate was sealed and for the next six decades he was the guiding genius among men devoted to the task of mastering the sky. Today he is universally acknowledged as the Father of Supersonic Flight.

As a child in Budapest, Von Karman astonished his family with his ability to solve complex mathematical problems in his head. This might have led to a precocious childhood except for the fact that his professor father insisted on a normal course of education both in the humanities and the sciences. He became an engineer with no idea of specialization until he witnessed that flight. As director of an aeronautical institute in Europe, Van Karman revealed an amazing versatility as scientist, engineer, researcher and teacher. At thirty his discoveries in aerodynamics led to radical improvements in the design of aircraft. During World War I, he designed armament for planes and invented the forerunner of the modern rotary helicopter.

At the urging of Dr. Millikan, Von Karman came to the United States as a consultant with the Caltech Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratories. Disturbed by the implications of Hitler's rise to power, he decided to make America his homeland. During World War II, he invented the first booster rockets for aircraft, and solved countless structural problems in aircraft design. By predicting the development of air power twenty years into the future, he persuaded skeptical authorities that supersonic flight was possible, enabling the U.S. to develop the weapons necessary for the defense of a free world.

Theodor von Karman's uniquely human qualities enliven and enrich this biography — his energetic warmth and humor, his vigorous curiosity, his enduring vision of a science without national boundaries. His life story is a fascinating chronicle of exploits and adventures on mankind's last and most challenging frontier, the conquest of space.

From the dust jacket