CHIEF PROPULSION SCIENTIST There is no conversation about rocket
propulsion employing hydrogen peroxide, which does not contain
the mentioning of James ’Jim’ McCormick, considered by many to
be the father of modern hydrogen peroxide rocket propulsion.
After leaving the 775 Bomb Squadron in 1945 where he honorably
served as a flight engineer of a B-17 during WWII, James C.
McCormick went to work in the early 1950 for a then relatively
unknown company called Buffalo Electro Chemical Company (BECCO)
based in Buffalo, NY where he became Manager of Technical
Service for the company Hydrogen Peroxide and Hydrazine
products. To McCormick’s surprise, these were two chemicals that
would be kingpin for the accelerated space race that was going
to take the country by a storm after a new young president would
challenge the nation to reach the moon. Immediately he began
work consulting with McDonnel Aircraft Corp. for the then-secret
”Mercury“ project. His keen eye on the inner workings of the
hydrogen peroxide rocket mot