Originally written more than 10 years ago, TROGL is a novella set in 1936, the story of the first “successful” interstate flight of a liquid-fueled mail rocket. Quotes there because the Gloria – for such was the rocket’s name – was provisionally successful, getting across the state line by the metaphorical skin of its teeth, and not aloft the entire time but skidding along the frozen lake.
You can see a short video of the flight here on YouTube – A posting in Spanish of a German newsreel of the American flight. Ah, multiculturalism! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJBmxtuZV9s (I have other, better footage, but on VHS that I haven’t converted to digital format.)
You can also see that the Gloria was not a big rocket, and certainly did look more like a small airplane, but rocket it was, and fly it did. The mail it contained was postmarked to commemorate the flight. There was also a commemorative post card (left). Obviously a “photoshop” job, since the Gloria never attained such a level, serene attitude during her flight.
It’s a small story in the annals of American rocketry but it has some personal resonance for me, even though I wasn’t even born until 1950. One of the principals of the effort was the German rocket enthusiast and science writer Willy Ley, who left Germany for the US as Hitler was closing his fist on the country. Though not Jewish, Ley hated the Nazis and what they were doing to his homeland. Concerned lest he be forced to work for the Nazis developing rockets (his friend and colleague Werner van Braun didn’t need to be forced; he willingly labored for them), Ley came to the US with the help of some members of the American Rocket Society and after a short time started experimenting with rockets once again.
The Greenwood Lake flight was one of his projects.
The Greenwood Lake Rocketeers
Here (right) is a picture of the Greenwood Lake rocketeers. I think that’s Willy Ley with his back to the camera, but I can’t be certain. Note the optimistic legend emblazoned on his asbestos suit: ROCKET AIRPLANE CORP. OF AMERICA. That I know of, they never got that particular business initiative off the ground — joke intended.
In the early 1990s I happened to be living in the next town over from Greenwood Lake, Warwick, New York. I drove through Greenwood Lake daily on my way to work in White Plains, passing by a small monument near the center of town. One day I, curious, I happened to stop to inspect it and discovered to my amazement that it had been erected to celebrate the flight – of which I had never heard!
But the plaque named Ley, and I was very familiar with his name. Having grown up in the 1950s, I was one of many boys interested in model cars and planes and the like, available as plastic kits from hobby and toy stores. (left and right; click the images for larger versions) 
I could not help but be aware of rockets, of course, given the launch of Sputnik in 1957 and popular culture’s interest in the possibility of space travel and trips to other planets. Willy Ley, who by that time was fairly well known as a popularizer of science in common with other writers like Isaac Asimov, lent his name to a series of model spacecraft from Monogram – and I had them all.
So, when he appeared as a guest on a “Tomorrowland” episode of Disney’s Wonderful World of Color in 1957 about future space travel, I recognized him. And of course, as I grew older I ran across his columns in Galaxy magazine. His was also the only non-fiction piece in the seminal sf anthology from Healy and McComas, Adventures in Time and Space.
But why was Willy Ley mentioned on a plaque in the middle of Greenwood Lake? I sensed a story, and set about doing research. Soon enough I unearthed the story of the Greenwood Lake flight. I dove into it, going so far as to contact Ley’s widow, Olga, who was still living in Greenwich Village at that time. I went to interview her and she was most gracious and helpful.
I wrote the novella, embellishing a few things here and there; there were some hints from those I interviewed that the Nazis may have been interested in Ley’s post-German rocket experiments, so I made that a part of the plot. That’s pure speculation on my part, but it is certainly true that the V1 “buzzbomb” (below, left) bears a interesting resemblance to the Gloria. True or not, the Nazi subplot makes for an exciting addition to the tale.
Captured V1 buzzbomb
However, it never occurred to me to wonder who, exactly, had set up that monument. And it wasn’t until this year, 2010, that that final piece of the puzzle fell into place for me.
I had already decided in mid-2009 or so to turn the Greenwood Lake story into a full-length book, set in New York circa 1935-1936. Ley wouldn’t be the main character, as he was in the novella – I created the character of a young Brooklyn boy who gets involved with early sf fandom and rocketry and who subsequently befriends Ley and becomes involved in the flight of the Glorias – yes, there was more than one rocket plane. (History records two – but I have photos to prove that isn’t accurate. However, that’s another story.) To that end I asked a few friends to recommend reference material concerning the period. Among the recommendations was The Futurians by Damon Knight, about early fandom in New York City.
In that book I came across the amazing fact that New York fan John Michel, who knew Ley, had moved to Greenwood Lake in 1958 upon the return of he and his wife from a period spent in California. His wife went to work for a lawyer in nearby Warwick and Michel became interested in civic affairs. In 1960 he proposed that the town erect a monument to the mail-rocket flight. It was set in front of the Greenwood Lake library and dedicated on February 23, 1961 on the 25th anniversary of the flight.
So in brief, that’s the story. A small one in the annals of American rocketry – but interesting nonetheless for the involvement both of Ley and of sf fan John Michel – and of this writer as well.
So if I wrote this over a decade ago, why is it a “work in progress”? Because it’s being published in an anthology called Distant Worlds, edited by Lance Schonberg, who is, in my opinion, rather a good editor. (Not because he’s accepted the tale!) So I’m proud to have it appear there, and happy to have been able to revise and upgrade the story — all the more so because I am expanding it into a young adult book. Recent research has brought me additional information and insights, and I’m delighted to be able to add a few bits to the historical record.
