 As a renowned aeronautical engineer and the director of GIRD, he and his colleagues were enthusiastic supporters of Russia's race to space, and their focus was aimed at using liquid propellant to push their rockets into the atmosphere.In 1931, Korolev had come to Zander with a conceptual design for a rocket-powered aircraft called the RP-1.This craft was essentially a glider, powered with one of GDL's rocket motors, the OR-2.