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According to Clarke's Ignition! (1972), German rocket experimenter Johannes Winkler fired a methane-LOX rocket motor in 1930:
This work led nowhere in particular, since, as methane has a performance only slightly superior to that of gasoline, and is much harder to handle, nobody could see any point to following it up.
By 1970, NASA had experimented with ...
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Liquid methane (Methalox) has never been used in an orbital, or even very high flying rocket. It's a long story, but the short is methalox requires a bit better metal alloys then were available until recently, and that is why the sudden heavy interest in it. Methane in and of itself isn't optimal for atmospheric or above-atmosphere range, but has a good mix ...
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Walter Thiel, a German experimenter, tried to use liquid hydrogen fuel in a small rocket engine before WW2.
The first systematic investigation of LH2 as an airplane and/or rocket fuel in the US started in 1945.
The first operational rocket stage to use LH2 as a fuel was the Centaur.
LH2 is difficult to use because of its extreme low temperature, difficulty ...
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