(C) NASA
This story was originally published by NASA and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics [1]

['Michele Ostovar']

Date: 2025-03

Post-War Growth

The NACA Muroc contingent in October 1947 in front of the Bell Aircraft Corporation X-1-2 and Boeing B-29 launch aircraft. NASA

The NACA emerged from World War II as a significantly larger organization. In addition to its two new research laboratories, it also added auxiliary facilities at Wallops Island, Virginia and Muroc Lake in California, and began construction of a third in 1956 at Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio. At its existing sites, a series of new, more advanced test facilities were built, including the Unitary Plan wind tunnels in the 1950s.

During the War years, the number of NACA employees grew from roughly 500 to over 7,000. Its annual appropriations increased from $1.26 million in 1938 to $78 million in 1957. The Executive Committee was expanded, and a host of new subcommittees were created. Hugh Dryden took over as Director of Aeronautical Research following George Lewis’ retirement in 1947. Dryden guided the NACA through its move into high-speed flight and the transition into NASA.

The NACA sought to return to its pre-War focus on fundamental research, while leaving development to industry, but the distinction between the two had become difficult to discern. In an effort to be more responsive to the aviation industry, the NACA formed an Industry Consulting Committee; reinvented its annual conferences as elaborate, multi-day Inspections which rotated from one laboratory to another each year; and introduced smaller, more focused technical conferences on specific topics.

New Realms of Research

Testing advanced designs for high-speed aircraft in 1948, an engineer makes final calibrations to a model mounted in the 6 x 6 Foot Supersonic Wind Tunnel at the NACA Ames Aeronautical Laboratory, Moffett Field, California. NACA

With some notable exceptions, such as icing research, the NACA focused on high-speed flight and jet propulsion in the post-War period. Langley engineers pioneered the swept-wing and area rule concepts. The former protected aircraft from shockwaves and improved efficiency at transonic and supersonic speeds. The latter, which indented the fuselage into a “Coke bottle” shape, facilitated supersonic flight. These concepts went on to be employed on nearly all supersonic fighters. Ames extended the work on the area rule and developed the advanced supersonic wing models that improved aircraft performance at supersonic speeds.

Researchers lower a J40 turbojet into the NACA Lewis Altitude Wind Tunnel in 1951. NASA

The Cleveland laboratory, which was renamed the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory in 1948, concentrated nearly all of its resources on jet propulsion. Its researchers studied high-altitude combustion, thrust augmentation (including the first working afterburner), compressor and turbine design, and high-temperature materials. Nearly every type of U.S. jet engine underwent testing in simulated flight conditions at the laboratory during this period. Jet engine thrust increased from 1,600 pounds to over 10,000 pounds in just a few years.

The experimental high-speed Bell X-1 broke the sound barrier on October 14, 1947. NASA

As the Cold War took hold, the NACA received additional national security funding which allowed it to embark upon on an unprecedented full-scale high-speed flight development program. At the time, little was known about conditions in the transonic realm. The Langley laboratory partnered with Bell Aircraft and the Air Force to design the first supersonic aircraft, the X-1. In 1946, the NACA established a small station (today, NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center) at the Muroc Army Air Field in California to perform the flight tests. On October 14, 1947, the Bell X-1 became the first aircraft to exceed the speed of sound. The supersonic research flights continued using D-558 Skystreaks and an evolving stable of X-planes to study high-speed dynamics and advanced design configurations.

Pushing Towards Space

Firing of a high-energy liquid rocket at the NACA Lewis laboratory in 1949. NASA/Bill Wynne

For years, NACA leaders deemed space-related technologies outside of its mandate and considered missiles as weapons and thus falling under the purview of the military. Nonetheless, engineers at its three laboratories found ways to make forays into the field.

Researchers at the Lewis laboratory, who saw rocket engines as an extension of their aeropropulsion work, constructed a modest rocket test facility in 1945 to study combustion and cooling of JATO rockets. Soon, however, the group began concentrating on experimental high-energy liquid propellants. The lab’s identification of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen as the optimal combination in the mid-1950s led to its utilization by NASA’s upper-stage vehicles in the 1960s.

The launching of the first rocket at the NACA’s Wallops Island Facility on June 27, 1945. NASA

In the spring of 1945, Langley built the Pilotless Aircraft Research Station at Wallops Island. The test range provided a safe location to launch rocket-boosted free flying models in order to obtain aerodynamic data in the transonic and supersonic realms that was impossible to acquire in contemporary wind tunnels. A series of Mercury and Apollo vehicles were launched from Wallops in the 1960s.

Shadowgraph of finned hemispherical model in free-flight show shock waves produced by blunt bodies (H. Julian Allen blunt nose theory). NACA

In the early 1950s, NACA Ames aerodynamicist Harvey Allen began studying the thermodynamic aspects of atmospheric reentry. In direct contrast to existing military designs, Allen posited that reentry vehicles should employ a blunt nose to push the shock wave away from the body and thus significantly reduce vehicle heating. The blunt body theory was utilized on the capsules for the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.nasa.gov/reference/the-national-advisory-committee-for-aeronautics/

Published and (C) by NASA
Content appears here under this condition or license: Public Domain.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/nasa/