Astounding Science Fiction, British Edition — page 116: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

BRASS TACKS N response to many queries and comments: The November, 1953 cover, by Lee Correy, illustrating the take-off of the Fafnir in Lee Correy’s story “A Star To Steer Her By,” was a Kodachrome photograph. Correy’s business is rocket research; the Fafnir was fourteen inches high, resting on a card table, with the Colorado sky for a backdrop. The cloud in the fore- ground, and the jet flame, are out-of- focus cotton batting—the flame has a bit of red ink on it. Correy had a whole series, including the Fafnir being loaded in the gantry, and the whole procedure of take-off. I regret we can’t publish them all. The detail of the model work is magnifi- cent; most people seeing the shots, and being told Correy is a rocket re- searcher, accept that it’s a full-scale ship and gantry. Seen as part of the series, the cloud _ of our cover shot is accepted as the dust cloud raised by the jet-wash striking the ground. The painstaking work done on it was not done for the purpose of making a cover; the cover was a by-product of Correy’ s hobby of rocket model work. That caliber of work can’t be done for cover picture prices! The Editor. Dear Mr. Campbell: Occasionally, in my reading of ASF, I come upon discussions that are not only thought-provoking—which is the rule, not the exception—but almost require, at least for my own satisfac- tion, some answer or amplification, either in the form of marginal notes or a letter. The communication from Mr. Es- quivel (7) and your own editorial in the February issue were particularly interesting to me. My background in- cludes a stretch as a radio operator in the Air Force during World War II Conniclooolkks.ec© im