Nikolai Rynin

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Nikolai Alexsevitch Rynin (December 23, 1887–1942) was a Russian civil engineer, teacher, aerospace researcher, author, historian, and promoter of space travel.

He began his career in civil engineering, working in the railway industry. However, in 1906 he developed an interest in aircraft and manned flight. During his career he performed research in aeronautics, became a balloonist and aircraft pilot, taught aerospace topics as a professor in Leningrad, and wrote various books and articles on airplanes and space travel.

In the April 1918 issue of the Byloye magazine, Rynin published Nikolai Kibalchich's description of a manned, rocket-propelled ship. Between 1928 and 1932 he published a nine-volume encyclopedia of space travel called the Mezhplanetnye Soobschniya ("Interplanetary Communications"). He is known to have corresponded with peers in the West, including Robert H. Goddard, concerning Russian rocketry activities.

Rynin crater on the Moon is named for him.

[edit] Interplanetary Communications

Rynin's encyclopedia contains the following nine volumes:

Dreams, Legends, and Early Fantasies
Spacecraft in Science Fiction
Radiant Energy: Science Fiction and Scientific Projects
Rockets
Theory of rocket propulsion
Superaviation and superartillery
K. E. Tsiolkoviskii; life, writings, and rockets
Theory of space flight
Astronavigation; theory, annals, bibliography, index.

They are available in English from NASA as follows:

Rynin, N.A. Interplanetary Flight and Communication. Washington, D.C.: NASA and NSF, 1970-71. (NASA TT F-640, TT F-642 through TT F-648) (Holdings: Vol. 1, Nos. 1 and 3; Vol. II, Nos. 4 and 6, Vol. III, Nos. 7, 8 and 9).