National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
Agency overview | |
---|---|
Formed | March 3, 1915 |
Dissolved | October 1, 1958 |
Superseding agency | |
Jurisdiction | Federal government of the United States |
The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was a United States federal agency founded on March 3, 1915, to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research.[1] On October 1, 1958, the agency was dissolved and its assets and personnel were transferred to the newly created National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NACA is an initialism, i.e., pronounced as individual letters, rather than as a whole word[2] (as was NASA during the early years after being established).[3]
Among other advancements, NACA research and development produced the NACA duct, a type of air intake used in modern automotive applications, the NACA cowling, and several series of NACA airfoils,[4] which are still used in aircraft manufacturing.
During World War II, NACA was described as "The Force Behind Our Air Supremacy" due to its key role in producing working superchargers for high altitude bombers, and for producing the laminar wing profiles for the North American P-51 Mustang.[5] NACA also helped in developing the area rule that is used on all modern supersonic aircraft, and conducted the key compressibility research that enabled the Bell X-1 to break the sound barrier.
Origins
NACA was established on March 13, 1915, by the federal government through enabling legislation as an emergency measure during
In December 1912, President
According to one source, "The enabling legislation for the NACA slipped through almost unnoticed as a rider attached to the Naval Appropriation Bill, on March 3, 1915."[7] The committee of 12 people, all unpaid, were allocated a budget of $5,000 per year.
President
The act of Congress creating NACA, approved March 3, 1915, reads, "...It shall be the duty of the advisory committee for aeronautics to supervise and direct the scientific study of the problems of flight with a view to their practical solution. ... "[8]
Research
On January 29, 1920, President Wilson appointed pioneering flier and aviation engineer
- Facilities
- Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory (Hampton, Virginia)
- Moffett Field)
- Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory (Lewis Research Center)
- Muroc Flight Test Unit (Edwards Air Force Base)
In 1922, NACA had 100 employees. By 1938, it had 426. In addition to formal assignments, staff were encouraged to pursue unauthorized "bootleg" research, provided that it was not too exotic. The result was a long string of fundamental breakthroughs, including "
The full-size 30-by-60-foot (9.1 m × 18.3 m) Langley wind tunnel operated at no more than 100 mph (87 kn; 160 km/h) and the then-recent 7-by-10-foot (2.1 m × 3.0 m) tunnels at Moffett could only reach 250 mph (220 kn; 400 km/h). These were speeds Lockheed engineers considered useless for their purposes. General Henry H. Arnold took up the matter and overruled NACA objections to higher air speeds. NACA built a handful of new high-speed wind tunnels, and Mach 0.75 (570 mph (495 kn; 917 km/h)) was reached at Moffett's 16-foot (4.9 m) wind tunnel late in 1942.[10][11]
Wind tunnels
NACA's first
- Atmospheric 5-ft wind tunnel (1920)
- Variable Density Tunnel (1922)
- Propeller Research Tunnel (1927)
- High-speed 11-in wind tunnel (1928)
- Vertical 5-ft wind tunnel (1929)
- Atmospheric 7- by 10-ft wind tunnel (1930)
- Full-scale 30- by 60-ft tunnel (1931)
Influence on World War II technology
In the years immediately preceding World War II, NACA was involved in the development of several designs that served key roles in the war effort. When engineers at a major engine manufacturer were having issues producing
After the war had begun, the British government sent a request to North American Aviation for a new fighter. The offered P-40 Tomahawk fighters were considered too outdated to be a feasible front line fighter by European standards, and so North American began development of a new aircraft. The British government chose a NACA-developed airfoil for the fighter, which enabled it to perform dramatically better than previous models. This aircraft became known as the P-51 Mustang.[5]
Supersonic research
After early experiments by
The X-1 program was first envisioned in 1944 when a former NACA engineer working for Bell Aircraft approached the Army for funding of a supersonic test aircraft. Neither the Army nor Bell had any experience in this area, so the majority of research came from the NACA Compressibility Research Division, which had been operating for more than a year by the time Bell began conceptual designs. The Compressibility Research Division also had years of additional research and data to pull from, as its head engineer was previously head of the high speed wind tunnel division, which itself had nearly a decade of high speed test data by that time. Due to the importance of NACA involvement, Stack was personally awarded the Collier Trophy along with the owner of Bell Aircraft and test pilot Chuck Yeager.[14][15]
In 1951, NACA Engineer
Because the area rule was initially classified, it took several years for Whitcomb to be recognized for his accomplishment. In 1955 he was awarded the Collier Trophy for his work on both the Tiger and the F-102.[17]
The most important design resulting from the area rule was the
NACA experience provided a model for World War II research, the postwar government laboratories, and NACA's successor, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
NACA also participated in development of the first aircraft to fly to the "edge of space", North American's X-15. NACA airfoils are still used on modern aircraft.
Chairmen
No. | Portrait | Name | Term | President serving under | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Brig. Gen. George P. Scriven (United States Army) |
1915–1916 | Woodrow Wilson | ||
2 | William F. Durand (Stanford University) |
1916–1918 | |||
3 | John R. Freeman (Consultant) |
1918–1919 | |||
4 | Charles Doolittle Walcott (Smithsonian Institution) |
1920–1927 | |||
Warren G. Harding | |||||
Calvin Coolidge | |||||
5 | Joseph Sweetman Ames (Johns Hopkins University) |
1927–1939 | |||
Herbert Hoover | |||||
Franklin D. Roosevelt | |||||
6 | Carnegie Institution )
|
1940–1941 | |||
7 | MIT )
|
1941–1956 | |||
Harry S. Truman | |||||
Dwight D. Eisenhower | |||||
8 | Shell Oil Company )
|
1957–1958 |
Transformation into NASA
Special Committee on Space Technology
On November 21, 1957, Hugh Dryden, NACA's director, established the Special Committee on Space Technology.[20] The committee, also called the Stever Committee after its chairman, Guyford Stever, was a special steering committee that was formed with the mandate to coordinate various branches of the federal government, private companies as well as universities within the United States with NACA's objectives and also harness their expertise in order to develop a space program.[21]
On January 14, 1958, Dryden published "A National Research Program for Space Technology", which stated:[20]
It is of great urgency and importance to our country both from consideration of our prestige as a nation as well as military necessity that this challenge (Sputnik) be met by an energetic program of research and development for the conquest of space. ...
It is accordingly proposed that the scientific research be the responsibility of a national civilian agency working in close cooperation with the applied research and development groups required for weapon systems development by the military. The pattern to be followed is that already developed by the NACA and the military services. ...
The NACA is capable, by rapid extension and expansion of its effort, of providing leadership in space technology.
On March 5, 1958, James Killian, who chaired the President's Science Advisory Committee, wrote a memorandum to the President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Titled, "Organization for Civil Space Programs", it encouraged the President to sanction the creation of NASA. He wrote that a civil space program should be based on a "strengthened and redesignated" NACA, indicating that NACA was a "going Federal research agency" with 7,500 employees and $300 million worth of facilities, which could expand its research program "with a minimum of delay".[20]
Members
As of their meeting on May 26, 1958, committee members, starting clockwise from the left of the above picture:[21]
Committee member | Title |
---|---|
Edward R. Sharp | Director of the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory |
Colonel Norman C Appold | Assistant to the Deputy Commander for Weapons Systems, US Air Force
|
Abraham Hyatt | Research and Analysis Officer Bureau of Aeronautics, Department of the Navy |
Hendrik Wade Bode | Director of Research Physical Sciences, Bell Telephone Laboratories
|
William Randolph Lovelace II | Lovelace Foundation for Medication Education and Research |
S. K Hoffman | general manager, Rocketdyne Division, North American Aviation |
Milton U Clauser | Director, Aeronautical Research Laboratory, The Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation |
H. Julian Allen | Chief, High Speed Flight Research, NACA Ames |
Robert R. Gilruth | Assistant Director, NACA Langley |
J. R. Dempsey | Manager. Convair-Astronautics (Division of General Dynamics) |
Carl B. Palmer | Secretary to Committee, NACA Headquarters |
H. Guyford Stever | Chairman, Associate Dean of Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Hugh L. Dryden | (ex officio), director, NACA, Namesake of future Dryden Research Center |
Dale R. Corson | Department of Physics, Cornell University |
Abe Silverstein | Associate Director, NACA Lewis |
Wernher von Braun | Director, Development Operations Division, Army Ballistic Missile Agency |
References
- ^ "NACA Overview". history.nasa.gov. Retrieved April 20, 2022.
- ^ Murray, Charles, and Catherine Bly Cox. Apollo. South Mountain Books, 2004, p. xiii.
- ^ Jeff Quitney (May 17, 2013). "Creation of NASA: Message to Employees of NACA from T. Keith Glennan 1958 NASA". Archived from the original on November 22, 2016. Retrieved May 8, 2018 – via YouTube.
- ^ Abbot, Ira H. "Summary of airfoil data NACA report 824" (PDF). engineering.purdue.edu/. Retrieved April 20, 2022.
- ^ a b c "NASA - WWII & NACA: US Aviation Research Helped Speed Victory". www.nasa.gov. Archived from the original on December 18, 2017. Retrieved May 8, 2018.
- ^ Roland, Alex. "Model Research - Volume 1". Archived from the original on November 13, 2004.
- ^ Bilstein, Roger E. "Orders of Magnitude, Chapter 1". Archived from the original on January 14, 2007.
- ^ Dawson, Virginia P. "Engines and Innovation". Archived from the original on October 31, 2004.
- ISBN 0-9629359-5-6.
- ^ Bodie, Warren M. The Lockheed P-38 Lightning. pp. 75-6.
- ^ "ch3-5". www.hq.nasa.gov. Archived from the original on September 14, 2016. Retrieved May 8, 2018.
- ^ Joskow, Melissa; Dennis, Warren (June 10, 2015). "The NACA's First Wind Tunnel". NASA History. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Retrieved July 8, 2021.
- ^ John Uri (June 12, 2023). "95 Years Ago: First Human Rocket-Powered Aircraft Flight". NASA. Retrieved February 26, 2024.
- ^ From Engineering Science to Big Science: The NACA and NASA Collier Trophy Research Project Winners, 1998, P.89
- ^ "Dryden Flight Research Center historical data". NASA. Archived from the original on October 13, 2006. Retrieved December 10, 2006.
- ^ From Engineering Science to Big Science: The NACA and NASA Collier Trophy Research Project Winners, 1998, p. 146.
- ^ From Engineering Science to Big Science: The NACA and NASA Collier Trophy p. 147
- ^ From Engineering Science to Big Science: The NACA and NASA Collier Trophy Research Project Winners, 1998, P.147
- ^ Haynes, Leland R. "B-58 Hustler Records & 15,000 miles non-stop in the SR-71". www.wvi.com. Archived from the original on November 2, 2017. Retrieved May 8, 2018.
- ^ ISBN 1-58566-140-6. Archived from the original(PDF) on September 20, 2009.
- ^ a b "ch8". history.nasa.gov. Archived from the original on December 25, 2017. Retrieved May 8, 2018.
- OCLC 681285276. Retrieved June 9, 2019.
Further reading
- Michael H. Gorn, Expanding the Envelope: Flight Research at NACA and NASA.
- James Hansen. Engineer in Charge: A History of the Langley Aeronautical Laboratory, 1917–1958.
- John Henry, et al. Orders of Magnitude: A History of the NACA and NASA, 1915–1990.
- Alex Roland. Model Research: The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, 1915–1958.
External links
- U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission: The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA)
- The NASA Technical Reports Server provides access to a collection of 14,469 NACA documents dating from 1917.
- Aerospaceweb.org: Information on NACA airfoil series
- Nasa.gov: "From Engineering Science to Big Science"—The NACA and NASA Collier Trophy Research Project Winners, edited by Pamela E. Mack.