nasa the national aeronautics and space
administration presents aeronautics and
space report since nineteen seventeen
NASA's Langley Research Center Hampton
Virginia has been serving this country's
needs both in aeronautics and
astronautics
recalling some of the early history
senior historian and curator for the
Smithsonian's National Air and Space
Museum mr. Paul Garber welcome to the
Smithsonian Institution National Air and
Space Museum the third head of this
institution was Samuel Pierpont Langley
for whom the laboratory at Hampton
Virginia was named and his successor
Charles Doolittle Wolcott as early as
1912 realized that we should have here
in America a laboratory where scientific
investigations could be made of the
basic facts of aeronautics so that our
aircraft could be developed further this
is probably the most famous award in the
history of flight it was donated in 1912
by Robert J Collier who was then head of
the Aero Club of America it is awarded
annually for the greatest accomplishment
in aeronautics or astronautics the value
of which has been proven by a previous
year of practical use eight times those
awards have been either directly to naca
or na sa that is the national advisory
committee for aeronautics or the
National Aeronautics and Space
Administration either directly or in
connection with some development with
which they were associated the award for
1929 was the first one to naca and that
was for the engine cowling on the front
of an airplane or on the engines of an
airplane this cowling was a cylindrical
sleeve that fits over the cylinders of
the engine now on the spirit of st.
Louis those cylinders protrude and by
protruding cause so much friction of the
air that they are a serious dragged to
the speed of the aircraft but by
development of the NACA cowling that
engine could be so enshrouded so is
smooth so streamlined
while at the same time the engine itself
was better cooled that the performance
of aircraft was increased greatly in
fact the application of that cowling to
such aircraft as the Lockheed Air
Express and to the win he may increase
the speed appreciably it was during the
years following World War one that
Captain Charles a Lindbergh made the
first solo flight across the Atlantic
drawing worldwide attention to the
potential of the airplane dr. robert h
goddard successfully developed and fired
liquid-fueled rocket motors events which
would influence later history these were
the post-war years at Langley wind
tunnels were being constructed wind
tunnels able to test models in free
flight making accurate measurements and
corrections before a plane was built
pointing the way to improved airplane
design concepts to help determine the
spin characteristics of aircraft a spin
tunnel was so designed that models could
be spun simulating full-scale free
flight this same facility was used also
to test out models of all of the man's
spacecraft Mercury Gemini and Apollo
during the second decade at Langley 1927
to 1937 the dirigible plagued by a
series of tragic accidents and the
biplanes faded from the scene
you
in their place the all metal single
wincraft predecessors of our commercial
airlines planes with two rather than
three air-cooled engines and retractable
landing gear the NACA was asked to
determine the conditions which caused
ice formation on aircraft and develop
means of preventing it these studies
grew into a major effort that did in
fact find a solution with the 1946
awarding of the collier trophy for the
pioneering research to serve the needs
of the seaplane and amphibious airplane
designers the first of Langley's
hydrodynamic test tanks were made ready
for operation towing a model Hall
through the water up to the point of a
simulated takeoff speed engineers could
suggest improvements in the basic design
in later years Mercury Gemini and Apollo
water landing techniques would be
checked out using the same tank World
War 2 dominated Langley's third decade
the urgency of the war dictated the
programs of this period programs aimed
many times at curing the immediate ills
of already flying combat aircraft
typical of these were the ditching
studies here a highly instrumented be 24
was crash-landed in the James River
research aimed at giving over the water
combat crews a better chance of survival
should they be forced down
other work during the war time period
included studies of airplane stalling
characteristics aircraft loads in
maneuvering flight and problems
associated with diving and braking near
the end of the war Langley scientists
were working on the idea of wings
Sweetback an idea for attaining higher
flight speeds one method of
experimentation was with
rocket-propelled models these early
studies can be seen in present flying
airplanes high speed presented some
problems of ejecting from an airplane
this test pilot was subjected to wind
tunnel blasts at speeds up to 400 miles
per hour to check human tolerance
October 1947 Captain Charles E Yeager
piloting the bell x-1 flew through the
speed of sound for the first time and
pioneered the way to supersonic flight
speeds made possible by the long
research effort that had begun early in
the war at Langley the next decade
nineteen forty eight to nineteen
fifty-seven research continued on the x
series of aircraft these included the X
3 X 5 and the most significant airplane
design the x-15 hypersonic research
aircraft shown here being proved out in
a Langley wind tunnel today the x-15
travels at speeds in excess of 4,000
miles per hour and is returning
information about high-speed
high-altitude flight as it maneuvers
close to the fringes of space
research on flight tests of helicopters
continued to take place to help
determine future designs a landing loads
track began operation during this period
with it aircraft landing gear could be
subjected to the same type of load
stress encountered during landing later
tests identified the problem of aircraft
and automobile hydroplaning as a result
of water drenched pavements a condition
that can cause loss of control speaking
about his years in aviation general
james h Doolittle former chairman of the
national advisory committee for
aeronautics
this is my 50th year on aviation I
started in nineteen seventeen in those
days the aeroplane was very simple there
was a stick and wire contraption covered
with cloth and if somebody had drawn a
picture of a modern-day airplane we
would have thought him slightly mad
what's the best way to explain what's
happened in aviation is to say that in
those days there was a fixed landing
gear simple engine simple airframe since
then came flats flaps flops retractable
landing gears jet engine air
conditioning pressurization and all of
the multiple manifold communicational
and navigational equipment all the
military equipment that's gone in and
the aeroplane from a very simple thing
has become very complex the most modern
airplanes today cost something over five
million dollars or a thousand times more
than they cost in 1917 this gives some
indication of the increased complexity
of aviation and of course the improved
performance and utility of aircraft
today but part of that the force is due
to a reduction in the purchasing power
of the dollar but most of it is due to
the things that been put in the aircraft
now if we look at this aeroplane over
here we see a subsonic aeroplanes flying
it around 600 miles an hour crossing the
continent in about five hours I see in
the future the supersonic airplane that
will cross the continent in something
over an hour and Fire prior to that
there's a very large airplane the Boeing
747 the lockheed c-5 a which will
greatly reduce the cost of air travel
and tremendously increase the amount of
air travel it will have a profound
effect
on air cargo on the amount of our care
cargo that's scary there will also be
the VTOL the sto oil aircraft that will
make it more convenient to fly and will
save time over short distances all of
these things are coming
to study the heating problems generated
by reentry flight into the Earth's
atmosphere arc jet facilities were put
into use at Langley with the orbiting of
the Russian Sputnik getting men into
space and returning him safely through
the searing heat of reentry became a
high-priority problem now in the decade
of the 60s the Langley Research Center
is charged with a dual responsibility
continued aeronautical research and
contribute to the science of space
flight a space task group originally
formed at Langley went on to become the
manned spacecraft Center by the end of
the Mercury program there was no doubt
that man could live and work in space
at the White House President Kennedy
awarded the collier trophy to the first
seven astronauts and I'm particularly
glad that the decision has made been
made to award the trophy of this year to
them I think it on is a extraordinary
page in American history as well as in
the history of flight and I hope that
this award which in a sense closes out
this particular phase of the space
program will be a stimulus to them and
to other astronauts who will carry our
flag to the moon and perhaps even some
day beyond so it's great pleasure I
present to them is celebrated award
here are some of Langley's other
projects echo an automatically inflating
satellite grew out of a Langley concept
and was developed their rendezvous and
docking critical to the Apollo moon
program was studied and determined
feasible commercial supersonic transport
the initial configuration was developed
to meet the unique flight requirements
lifting bodies this the so-called HL 10
craft which may someday shuttle men and
equipment through space then land like a
conventional plane at an airport VTOL
vertical takeoff or landing aircraft
forerunners of intercity transports
which fly forward at high speed and then
set down like a helicopter the concept
for this tilt wincraft evolved into the
first operational VTOL transport lunar
orbiter a series of moon mapping craft
surveying safe landing sites for
American astronauts conceived and
managed by Langley scientists airport
landing studies and the list could go on
Langley Research Center in 50 short
years it has risen from a few buildings
and facilities testing out biplanes to
join NASA's national effort in both
aeronautics and space
but it's really 50 years of people
people make the machines and design the
test facilities and plan the missions
this has been an Aeronautics and Space
report presented by nasa the national
aeronautics and space administration