Find an Honoree
  • Find an Honoree
  • Robert Chester Koneful
  • Foil: 15 Panel: 1 Column: 3 Line: 85

    Wall of Honor Level:
    Air and Space Friend

    Honored by:

    I built and launched my first rocket when I was in High School in 1958. The rocket was made of copper tubing and it was designed from information obtained from Fort Sill, OK. On the October morning of 1958 I took the rocket to my uncle's farm just outside of Blackwood, N.J. He helped me set it up and we began the 30-second countdown to fire it electronically. After the 30 seconds went by, it did not ignite. We got up and started to walk toward it -- all of a sudden it ignited and started to fire. I counted five shock diamonds coming out of the rocket! It broke the sound barrier and disappeared into the sky! We never found the racket!

    A NJ state trooper was driving by and came out to the launch site and asked us what we were doing! We told him that we just launched a rocket and it disappeared in the sky! He said that he saw it a mile away and wondered where it went. We told him that we guess God only knows!!

    Wall of Honor profiles are provided by the honoree or the donor who added their name to the Wall of Honor. The Museum cannot validate all facts contained in the profiles.

    Foil: 15

    Foil Image Coming Soon
    All foil images coming soon. View other foils on our Wall of Honor Flickr Gallery