Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
03, 2005
Alan Brown
NASA Dryden Flight Research Center
Phone: 661/276-2665
alan.brown@dfrc.nasa.gov
RELEASE: 05-07
From March 3, 1915 until its incorporation into NASA on Oct. 1, 1958,
the NACA provided technical advice to the aviation industry in the
U.S. and carried out cutting-edge research in aeronautics. The NACA
was created by President Woodrow Wilson in an effort to organize
American aeronautical research and to "direct and conduct research
and experimentation in aeronautics, with a view to their practical
solution." NASA has continued this tradition to the present day.
Major contributions
With the NACA's transformation into the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration in 1958, research for space travel became a high
profile endeavor. NASA and Bell Aerosystems Company developed a Lunar
Landing Training Vehicle (LLTV) flying simulator for the Apollo
program that allowed a pilot to make a vertical landing on earth in a
simulated moon environment. Donald "Deke' Slayton, then NASA's
astronaut chief, said there was no other way to simulate a moon
landing except by flying the LLTV.
The NACA and NASA have been involved in virtually all areas of
aeronautics. Some of the Agency's other significant achievements
include:
The NACA proposed establishing a Bureau of Aeronautics in the Commerce
Department, granting funds to the Weather Bureau to promote safety in
aerial navigation, licensing of pilots, aircraft inspection, and
expanding airmail.
In 1928, the NACA began operating the first refrigerated wind tunnel
for research on prevention of icing of wings and propellers.
NACA propulsion experts helped develop the field of gas turbine engine
research and, to cope with continuing problems of how to cool turbine
blades in the new turbojets, laid the basic foundation for research
into heat transfer phenomena.
-NASA-
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