Willy Ley

Infobox_Person
name = Willy Ley
residence =
other_names =


image_size = 250px
caption = (left to right) Heinz Haber, Wernher von Braun, & Willy Ley
birth_name =
birth_date = birth date|1906|12|2
birth_place = Berlin
death_date = death date and age|1969|6|24|1906|12|2
death_place = Jackson Heights, New York

cite web |title=Willy Ley Collection |work=National Air and Space Archives |publisher=NASM archives |url=http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/arch/findaids/ley/ley_sec_1.html |format=pdf | ]
death_cause =
known =
occupation = science writer
party =
spouse = Olga
children = daughters Sandra & Xenia
footnotes = US citizen (1944)
Worldcon Guest of Honor ()

Willy Ley was a German-American science writer and space advocate who helped popularize rocketry and spaceflight in Germany and the United States. Ley crater on the far side of the Moon has been named in his honor.

Biography

Ley astronomy, physics, zoology, and paleontology at the University of Berlin, [cite web |last=Darling |first=David |title=Willy Ley |url=http://www.astronautix.com/astros/ley.htm |quote=... fluent in German, English, Italian, French, and Russian] but became interested in spaceflight after reading Hermann Oberth's book "Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen ("By Rocket into Interplanetary Space")". After publishing "Die Fahrt in den Weltraum ("Travel in Outer Space")" in 1926, Ley became one of the first members of Germany's amateur rocket group, the "Verein für Raumschiffahrt" (VfR - "Spaceflight Society") in 1927 and wrote extensively for its journal, "Die Rakete ("The Rocket")". With Oberth, he also acted as a consultant on Fritz Lang's film "Frau im Mond ("Woman in the Moon")".

In 1935, Ley fled Nazi Germany for Great Britain and then the United States. In the United States in 1936, Willy Ley supervised operations of two rocket planes carrying mail at Greenwood Lake, NY. [cite web |url=http://www.spaceline.org/history/3.html |format=html |accessdate=2008-06-13 |title=History of rocketry] He also began publishing scientific articles in American science fiction magazines, beginning with "The Dawn of the Conquest of Space" in the March 1937 issue of "Astounding Stories". Ley had a regular science column called "For Your Information" in "Galaxy Magazine" from 1952 to 1969.

His book "Rockets - the Future of Travel Beyond the Stratosphere" (1944) describes the early rockets at VfR and more futuristic projects to reach the moon using a 3-stage rocket "as high as 1/3 of the Empire State Building" - a very good estimate of the height of the Saturn V rocket designed 20 years after. His works from the 1950s and 60s are regarded as classics of popular science and include "The Conquest of Space" (1949), "The Conquest of the Moon" (with Wernher von Braun and Fred Whipple, 1953), and "Beyond the Solar System" (1964). His book, "Rockets, Missiles, and Space Travel", (1957) was cited in the "Space Handbook: Astronautics and its Applications", a staff report of the Select Committee on Astronautics and Space Exploration of the U.S. House of Representatives, which provided non-technical information about spaceflight to U.S. policy makers. [

cite web | url = http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/conghand/default.htm | title = Space Handbook: Astronautics and its Applications | publisher = NASA] He also acted as science consultant for the Tom Corbett, Space Cadet series of children's science fiction books and TV series, as well as the 1959 feature film entitled "The Space Explorers."

Ley was best known for his books on rocketry and related topics, but he also wrote a number of books about animals. One notable book was "Exotic Zoology" (1959), which combined some of his older writings with new ones. This is of some interest to cryptozoology, as Ley discusses the Yeti and sea serpents, as well as reports of relict dinosaurs. The book's first section ("Myth?") entertains the possibility that some legendary creatures (like the sirrush, the unicorn or the cyclops) might be based on actual animals (or misinterpretation of animals and/or their remains).

=Publications [cite web |title=Ley, Willy (1906-1969) [list of books]
url=http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Ley.html List of books |format=html |publisher=WolframResearch |accessdate=2008-10-06] =

*cite book
title=The Lungfish and the Unicorn; an Excursion into Romantic Zoology
publisher=Modern Age Books
year=1941
id =
*cite book
title=The Days of Creation; a Biography of Our Planet
publisher= Unknown publisher
year= <1944
id =
*cite book
title=Bombs and Bombing
publisher= Modern Age Books, NY
year= 1941
id =
*cite book
title=Shells and Shooting
publisher= Modern Age Books, New York
year=1942
id =
*cite book
title=Rockets; The Future of Travel Beyond the Stratosphere
publisher= Viking Press
year=1944
id =
*cite book
title=Dragons in Amber. Further adventures of a romantic naturalist.
publisher= Sidgwick & Jackson
year=1951
id =
*cite book
author = (with Wernher Von Braun and others)
title=The Complete Book of Outer Space
publisher=Maco Magazine Corporation
year=1953
id =
*cite book |last=Braun|first=Wernher von|authorlink=Wernher von Braun|coauthors=Fred Lawrence Whipple, Willy Ley |editor= Cornelius Ryan |others=illustrated by Chesley Bonestell, Fred Freeman, Rolf Klep|title=Conquest of the Moon|origdate=1952 - Collier's "Man on the Moon" |origyear=|origmonth= |url= |format= |accessdate= |accessyear=|accessmonth= |edition= |series=|date= |year=1953|month= |publisher=The Viking Press|location=New York|language=|isbn=|oclc= |doi= |id= |pages=|chapter= |chapterurl= |quote=
*cite book
title=Salamanders and other Wonders
publisher=Viking Press
year=1955
id =
*cite book
author = (with Wernher Von Braun)
title=Chesley Bonestell
publisher=Viking Press
year=1956
id =
*cite book
last=Ley
first=Willy
authorlink=Willy Ley|
title=Rockets, Missiles and Space Travel
origdate=1944
year=1951 - revised edition 1958
month=
publisher=The Viking Press|location=New York|pages=
*cite book
title=Willy Ley's Exotic Zoology
publisher=Random House
year=1959
id = ISBN 0517625458
*cite book
title=Beyond the Solar System
publisher= Viking Press
year=1964
id =
*cite book
title=Missiles, Moonprobes, and Megaparsecs
publisher=New American Library
year=1964
id =
*cite book
title=Ranger to the Moon
publisher= Signet
year=1965
id = ISBN 1251026680
*cite book
title=Watchers of the Sky: an Informal History of Astronomy From Babylon to the Space Age
publisher=Viking Press
year=1966
id =
*cite book
title=Willy Ley's For Your Information: On Earth and in the Sky
publisher= DoubleDay
year=1967
id =
*cite book
title=The Poles
publisher= LIFE Nature Library
year=1968
id =
*cite book
title=Rockets, Missiles, And Men In Space (revision of "Rockets, Missiles, and Space Travel")
publisher= Signet/Viking
year=1968
id = Signet 451-W3889, Library of Congress Catalog 67-20676
*cite book
title=Dawn of Zoology
publisher= Prentice-Hall
year=1968
id = ISBN 600038663X
*cite book
title=Another Look at Atlantis and Fifteen Other Essays
publisher= DoubleDay
year=1969
id = ISBN 051714543X

References and Notes