Project Helios, J. Gordon Vaeth, David DeVorkin, and the Smithsonian…

It turns out that I’m far from the only person to have dived headlong down the Project Helios rabbit-hole. While reading through ballooninghistory.com’s “Who’s Who” pages of balloon-related people (originally compiled by Robert Recks), I found J. Gordon Vaeth’s entry on the V page.

• s: Officer in the U.S.Navy, LTA Command.
• l: 1947-50, FAI-Balloon Commission; 1947-50, U.S.Represenative of the In’tl. League of Aeronauts; 1947, Naval research Coordinator of Project “Helios” (cluster strato-balloon, 100 science projects); 1948-50, Naval research Coordinator of Project “Skyhook” (cluster strato-balloon, cosmic ray sampling); 1955-56, Originator of Project-FATSO. The first manned airborne Telescopic & Spectroscopic Observatory.
• l: Author of many articles on sport & scientific ballooning; Author of “200 Miles Up” on atmospheric research by balloon, 1956; Author of “Graf Zeppelin,” 1958.
• a: 3000 Tennyson St; Washington, DC 20015.
• r: Correspondence.

Which explains exactly how Vaeth was able to include information on Project Helios that I’ve not found elsewhere in his Epilogue section of “They Sailed The Skies” – it’s because he worked on it, of course.

I then wondered – as historians do – which institution or library J. Gordon Vaeth (b. 1921, d. 2012) left his papers to. And it didn’t take long to find them in the Smithsonian: and, yes, this includes a folder on Project Helios.

Nosing around the Smithsonian Archives quickly led me to Senior Curator David H. DeVorkin’s papers, which (again) include Project Helios:

Project Helios ONR Files – Chronology of project Helios file, photocopied letters, and index cards

I guess I would already have known this if I had patiently waited for my copy of DeVorkin’s book (1989) “Race to the Stratosphere” to land on my doorstep before blogging. *sigh* And, nicely, the Smithsonian has a collection of photographs that did and didn’t make it into Race to the Stratosphere.

Finally, there’s also a Project Skyhook collection there from the ONR (containing Project Helios papers) – and Vera Simons’ papers also mention Project Helios (though the timing may possibly be slightly off).

So, whereas I thought last night that I might have hit a brick wall in this research thread, today it seems that I instead have the shoulders of several giants to clamber onto. Which is nice.

All the same, it’s looking very much as though I’m going to have to physically go to the Smithsonian to read up on all this. But maybe I should ask David DeVorkin if there’s anything big I’ve missed here…