The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the forerunner to NASA, was founded exactly one hundred years ago, during the First World War.
The Wright Brothers first took to the skies in 1903 at Kitty Hawk, but by the start of the Great War, America lagged far behind Europe in development of aircraft. In response to this situation, the federal government created NACA on March 3, 1915. Founded with little fanfare, the group was initially tasked with coordination aviation development efforts, rather than developing their own technology. In 1920, the Langley Aeronautical Laboratory became the first NACA research facility. Five years later, the organization grew to employ over 100 people.
Several new aircraft designs were tested by NACA engineers through the 1920's. The organization developed pioneering wind tunnel designs and other facilities to test aircraft.
As the winds of war began to be felt in Europe and the Pacific, NACA founded a pair of new testing facilities, the Ames Aeronautical Laboratory and the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory. Research into new aircraft designs was fueled by the War Department, as it started to prepare the military for another massive global conflict. Advances developed during that time, and tested in NACA wind tunnels, were later used for some of the most famous aircraft of the Second World War, including the P-51 Mustang.
Immediately following the greatest war ever known, NACA turned its attention to developing supersonic aircraft. In 1947, when Charles Yeagar first broke the sound barrier, it was aboard a X-1 airplane designed, in part, by NACA engineers. The organization also monitored the historic flight.
One adaptation to aircraft developed during that time is an indentation of the fuselage where it joins the wings. This shape, still found in high-performance aircraft today, helps reduce drag, aiding in supersonic flight.
In its last years, NACA turned its attention to the development of new missile technologies as the Cold War began. Part of the research conducted by the organization involved the development of re-entry technologies for ballistic warheads re-entering the atmosphere.
"It was responsible for developing the tactics and designs for the reentry of space vehicles. Initially, the focus was on missile warheads, but later was applied to the possibility of manned vehicles. NACA expanded once again, adding a site for launching rocket-propelled airplane models for high-speed tests at Wallops Island," NASA officials reported.
After Sputnik 1 was launched by the Soviet Union in October 1957, NACA operations were folded into the new National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
"NASA can boast that streamlined aircraft bodies, quieter jet engines, techniques for preventing icing, drag-reducing winglets and lightweight composite structures are an everyday part of flying thanks to research concepts and tools that trace their origins to the NACA," Charles Bolden, NASA administrator, said.
Photo: Bill Larkins | Flickr
