Dr. Tsien Hsue-shen was a gifted academic, a man who rapidly reached the pinnacle of Chinese science in the early 20th Century and then went to America to continue his education. Originally trained as a steam-power engineer, Tsien rapidly showed himself to be a genius when it came to airflow physics, which in turn had ramifications in aviation and the United States' efforts in rocketry, which were paltry. He helped design American rockets BEFORE examples of the German V2 were available for study. Ms. Chang paints a portrait of a man driven by his love of science and his single-minded study of problems. Unfortunately, he ultimately chose to go to Communist China (as opposed to Nationalist China) and to give the benefit of his wisdom to a regime which would design missiles capable of reaching the United States with nuclear warheads, not to mention other weapons used against America and its allies. Well-written and illustrated with photos.
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