Surrounded by Thunder

When Darrell Loan graduates from University of Iowa in 1957 with an aeronautical engineering degree, he has no idea his first job at the Sperry Corporation will land him a top job at NASA in the next five years. When the US Army tires of hearing the US Navy's Sparrow Missile system is invincible and can protect the US coastline from communist attack, the Sperry Corporation that builds the Sparrow Missiles is contacted and Darrell is given the assignment to defeat the Navy's rockets....
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When Darrell Loan graduates from University of Iowa in 1957 with an aeronautical engineering degree, he has no idea his first job at the Sperry Corporation will land him a top job at NASA in the next five years. When the US Army tires of hearing the US Navy's Sparrow Missile system is invincible and can protect the US coastline from communist attack, the Sperry Corporation that builds the Sparrow Missiles is contacted and Darrell is given the assignment to defeat the Navy's rockets. After Darrell creates the first cruise missile by using a World War-2 German rocket to fly under the sparrow radar he is offered a new job at the Chrysler missile division and delves into perfecting the Redstone rocket designed by German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun. After the successful launch of America's first satellite and with Darrell working side by side with von Braun and other leading German engineers, NASA is formed and the race to dominate space intensifies as the first Russian and American pilots are launched atop volatile rockets and sent into space. With the entire world watching and emerging nations trying to decide whether to side with the Russian brand of communism or the capitalistic free enterprise system of America and the free world, the pressures of the Cold War dominate the space race as both nations struggle to prove that whoever can send pilots to the moon can use their superior aerospace hardware to deliver atomic weapons and win a third world war. During the twelve years between the launch of the Russian Sputnik and American boots on the moon, Darrell's exploits with his friends and aeronautical colleagues are pushed to the limits and chronicled with the dialogue of an adventure novel as the golden age of space exploration rises from the launch complexes of Cape Canaveral and Cape Kennedy Florida. This is a story of a time not to be forgotten and a chapter in history that truly was and always will be, Surrounded by Thunder.