I believe the final "master plan" for the space program eventually came from RAND, though I am sure they had input from many sources.
But I also believe that Townsend made a significant contribution to HOW our reach for the stars would be achieved. Specifically, I think he took "something" from Cleveland Brush, or if that was a cover assignment for public eyes, then he had achieved positive results from experiments at the then Aeronautical Engine Research Laboratory in Cleveland. (Yup, the one transitioned to NASA, to become the John Glenn/NASA Lewis lab), and was looking to hand it off for further development.
You were right. Now that I think about it, all of this was happening in the Wounded Prairie Chicken period. when Linda and Jo were in Zanesville, surviving by the grace of family goodness. Townsend had been forced into that ignnominius role when he learned that there had been a security leak about the Barbers Point demonstration for President Truman in 1949.
Side note 1: Also in 1949, noted British spy and ringleader of the Cambridge Five, Kim Philby became the head of the DC office of MI6. He and James Angleton, who would become the head the CIA in 1956, were besties.
https://www.smh.com.au/world/did-the-ci ... 00b7m.htmlSo when Philby finally defected to Moscow in January 1963, Angleton was shattered. For 19 years, his mentor and dear companion had played him for a fool, while stealing atomic secrets, US plans for the Korean War and countless secrets that had been read by Stalin.
Make of that what you will
Side note 2, here: paraphrasing from I forget where:Beau Kitselman has said writtenthat he was in Hawaii [for that Barbers Point experiment?} teaching the Gravitar math (calculus or calculus-plus?) to a dozen students.
Side note 3: The historical records of that trip only tell us that Truman was taken on a tour around the island of Oahu that ended with a stop at Barbers Point A young woman, part of Truman's secretarial detail, reported that she was delighted to be invited along, but the tour was halted midway, by a messenger telling her she was needed back at the base. She was baffled when the urgent need for her return was nothing more than to inform her about the name of partner for that evening's dinner.
Side note 4. Truman's pilot noted that the plane carried a new Command/Communications system that enabled them to communicate with ships (and a submarine) stationed along their flight route. Thus the president never had to go "off line" during the entire Pacific crossing.