Barre

Personal: Male.

French officer and rocket pioneer. Barre became interested in astronomy as a teenager, publishing an article on parabolic mirrors in 1923. Chosing a professional military engineering career, he still continued his studies in astronomy. Barre attended a symposium on 8 June 1927 where Robert Esnault-Pelterie explained his dream of reaching outer space using rocket propulsion. Barre was galvanized and feverishly sketched a design for an interplanetary manned spacecraft and started a correspondence with Esnault-Pelterie that would total 300 letters over the next six years.

By November 1930, Esnault-Pelterie the theoretician, and Barre the practical military engineer, had persuaded the Ministry of War to fund development of a sounding rocket as a first step. Their research laboratory opened on 25 September 1931. Only three weeks later Esnault-Pelterie loses four of his fingertips in an explosion at the lab. Work continued, but by the fall of the following year the Army decided that it was wasting the time of a valuable officer. Barre is transferred to other duties and has less time for research. Only the intervention of Esnault-Pelterie with General Weygand resulted in the work of the laboratory being continued.

Experimental work continued on establishing the optimum propellant combinations and ratios for liquid rocket motors. Barre obtained funding for development of rocket-augmented anti-aircraft artillery shells, which he calculates will have double the performance of conventional shells. Five test shots of the design are carried out in February-April 1937.

In July 1939 Barre proposes a tube-launched 240 mm rocket with a range of 101 km, compared to 53 km for a conventional artillery shell of the same gauge. The French Army finds the concept technically infeasible and rejected the proposal. Barre again found himself moved to other duties. However supporters within the Army covertly provide him premises and staff to continue his research.

By 15 January 1941 Barre completed a comprehensive report on the military potential of rocketry. He sketeched out ballistic missiles with 1000 km range, powered by liquid oxygen/gasoline engines. Armor-piercing rockets could reach 2000 m/s and defeat any tank armor. Anti-aircraft rockets would intercept aircraft in half the time. Rocket-boosted bombs would destroy enemey emplacements. Air-augmented rockets could reach even higher range and efficiencies but would require extensive research to handle pressure and humidity variations.

Barre's report worked its way through the wartime bureaucracy, finally reaching the Minister of State for War on 23 June 1941. It is immediately classived top secret, and Barre is given 300,000 francs to start research. In order to keep the work from the notice of the occupying Germans, it is officially for development of automotive gas generators.

By November 1941 Barre conducts his first engine test of his EA-1941 surface-to-air rocket at Lazarc. The engine runs for 42 seconds before exploding. Additional funds are provided, and the EA-1941B is run on 17 March 1942 for 5 seconds before exploding, but producing a thrust of 719 kgf. A second test the following day produces 650 kgf for only four seconds before exploding. Thermal transfer from the engine to the missile structure is found to be the cause, and changes are made. Testing is moved to Vancia, outside of Lyons, and the test bench itself is rebuilt. Following short tests in July and August, the EA-1941 finally runs at 655 kgf for 11 seconds in a full-duration run on 24 September 1942. Barre feels the missile is ready for flight test, but this will have to be done in Algeria. By 8 November 1942 a third of the test material is being unloaded in Oran, and the team and the rest of the material are ready to embark at Marseilles. Then news comes of the Allied landings in North Africa. The flight tests are immediately called off, and the team hides all materials in Algeria and France. At the end of 1942, the Germans occupy Vichy France and all further work on the project is suspended.

Barre occupies himself in assessing nuclear thermal and ion propulsion for interplanetary spacecraft. He joins the French Resistance, and the Allies express interest in the EA-1941. In October 1943 Barre microfilms the drawings of the rocket and they are smuggled to Britain. The Gestapo detains members of Barre's team. One of them ironically dies in a concentration camp where the inmates are assigned to V-2 rocket production.

After the liberation of Paris, Barre is immediately put to work on the EA-1941. All of the hidden materials are returned to Lyons and it is decided to conduct test launches from Toulon. The first launch of the EA-1941 finally takes place on 15 March 1945. The rocket, intended to take a 25 kg payload to 100 km altitude, veers off course and crashes after 5 seconds of flight. A second attempt the next day results in the rocket exploding on the launch pad, destroying it.

By May and June 1945 Barre accompanies Henri Moureau on several trips to occupied Germany that recover tonnes of V-2 equipment, parts, and drawings. The incredible technical advance the V-2 represents is clear, and the French government decides to leapfrog Barre's development and have Germans develop a 'Super V-2' for France.

After this experience, Barre returns to test launches of the EA-1941 at Toulon on 6 July 1945. Three launch attempts are made, none entirely successful, but the last reaches 1400 m/s and is believed to have crashed into the ocean 60 km from the launch pad. Three further attempts on 18 July result in only two firings, neither of which leave the launcher. Results are sufficiently encouraging that SAGEM is given a contract to produce Barre's design for an improved EA-1946 rocket, dubbed Eole. SAGEM undertakes rigorous engineering test and analysis of the EA-1941's fuel feed systems and combustion processes to identify the sources of the rocket's problems. The source of the rocket's problem is finally found to be burn-through and loss of a portion of the inner wall of the combustion chamber, which blocked the nozzle exit. Ironically the last EA-1941 is ground run for full duration in the summer of 1946 without incident. However plans to develop it further as a sounding rocket are abandoned.

Barre becomes involved in advanced studies for the Army of nuclear weapons and ramjets. The French government dropped plans for development of the Super V-2, but development of both the EA-1946 and the German teams' Veronique rocket were continued at a low funding level. Bench test of the EA-1946 finally began at LRBA at Vernon in February 1949, but the engine exhibits combustion instability, which results in an enormous explosion on 6 January 1950. It is decided that the problem cannot be solved using gasoline propellant and a switch to ethanol, as used on the V-2, is made. After several unsuccessful tests, the new engine performs acceptably on 15 February 1951, producing 2.4 tonnes thrust. By the seventh test on 25 September 1951 the ending is reaching 9.59 tonnes thrust and an exhaust velocity of 2110 m/s. The second ground test of a complete Eole rocket on 3 April is successful, clearing the way for flight tests at the French launch site of Hammaguir in the Sahara.

Launches at Hammaguir were delayed by problems with transporting liquid oxygen over the rough roads and weather conditions in Algeria. Reservoirs adequate for use in Europe were too poorly insulated for the desert, and European vehicles were not up to Algeria's roads.

After several months of delays, the first launch attempt is made on 22 November 1952. The missile loses its stabilisation fins and explodes after seven seconds of flight, a failure attributed to tracer flares fitted to the fins. The tracers were omitted and a second launch attempt is made two days later. This rocket again loses its fins, but continues an altitude of 2.95 km. It is determined that the fins are not able to withstand going through the sound barrier.

The experiences in the desert spell the end of the Eole program. The German team at LRBA, using storable propellants in their Veronique rocket, are experiencing none of the problems liquid oxygen posed for the Eole. The military does not see any future use for cryogenically fueled rockets. The Eole project is shut down, and Barre does not participate directly in future rocketry development in France. He is retained as a consultant for SEREB and SNECMA in the 1960's, when the French military decided use only solid propellant missiles. Barre received numerous awards and honours before his death.

8 June 1927 - Esnault-Pelterie lecture. Robert Esnault-Pelterie delivers a groundbreaking lecture on space travel at the Societe Astronomique in Paris. It would be published in book form a year later. One audience member is Jean-Claude Barre, a military engineer who is inspired to begin development of rockets in France.

• Europespace website, . Accessed at: http://membres.lycos.fr/europespace/.

• Michels, Juergen and Przybilski, Olaf, Peenemuende und seine Erben in Ost und West, Bernard & Graefe, Bonn, 1997. ISBN: 3763759603. Marvelous German language book traces the 'technology transfer' from the Peenemuende refugees to the rocketry programs of America, Russia, Germany, and other countries. More at amazon.com...