The 50th Year (1967)

[Music] NASA the National Aeronautics and Space Administration presents Aeronautics and Space reports since 1917 NASA's Langley Research Center Hampton Virginia has been serving this country's needs both in Aeronautics and [Music] astronautics recalling some of the early history senior historian and curator for the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Mr Paul Garber welcome to the Smithsonian institution National Air and SP Space Museum the third head of this institution was Samuel Pont Langley For Whom the laboratory at Hampton Virginia was named and his successor Charles D wett 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 ker who was then head of the AO 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 NASA that is the national advisory committee for Aeronautics or the national AAR 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 fit over the cylinders of the engine now on the Spirit of St Louis those cylinders protrude and by protruding caused so much friction of the air that they are a serious drag to the speed of the aircraft but by development of the NACA cowling that engine could be so enshrouded so smoothed 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 locked air express and to the Winnie May increased the speed appreciably it was during the years following World War I that Captain Charles A Lindberg 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 geminy and Apollo during the second decade at Langley 1927 to 1937 the durable plagued by a series of tragic accidents and the biplanes faded from the [Music] scene in their place the all metal single wingcraft 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 Cy trop trophy for the pioneering research to serve the needs of the SE plane and amphibious airplane designers the first of Langley's hydrodynamic test tanks were made ready for operation towing a model Hull through the water up to the point of a simulated takeoff speed Engineers could suggest improvements in the basic design in later years Mercury gemin and Apollo water landing techniques would be checked out using the same tank World War 2 dominated Langley's thirdd 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 B24 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 wartime 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 wing sweepback an idea for attaining higher flight speeds one method of experimentation was with rocket propelled mod 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 mph to check human tolerance October 1947 Captain Charles E Yer piloting the Bell X1 flew through the speed of sound for the first time and Pioneer neared 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 1948 to 1957 research continued on the X series of aircraft these included the X3 X5 and the most significant airplane design the X15 Hypersonic research aircraft shown here being proved out in a Langley wind tunnel today the X15 travels speeds in excess of 4,000 mph and is returning information about high-speed high altitude flight as it Maneuvers close to the fringes of space research and 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 dittle former chairman of the national advisory committee for [Music] Aeronautics this is my 50th year on Aviation I started in 1917 in those days days the airplane 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 perhaps 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 slots retractable landing gear 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 airlane from a very simple thing has become very complex the most modern airanes today cost something over $5 million or a thousand times more than they cost in 1917 this gives some indication of the increased complexity of Aviation and of course the the improved performance and utility of aircraft today but uh part of that of course is due to a reduction in the purchasing power of the dollar but most of it is due to the things that have been put in the aircraft now if we look at this airplane over here we see a subsonic airplane flying at around 600 M an hour crossing the continent in about 5 hours uh I see in the future the supersonic airplane that will cross the continent in uh something over an hour and uh P prior to that there's a very large Aeroplane the Boeing 747 the Lockheed c5a 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 and the amount of air cargo that carry there will also be the VTO and the St 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 re-entry flight into the Earth's atmosphere arcjet facilities were put into use at Langley with the orbiting of the Russian Sputnik getting men into space and returning them safely through the Searing heat of re-entry became a high priority Problem now in the decade of the 60s the Langley Research Center is charged with a dual responsibility continue aeronautical research and contribute to the science of space flight a space task group originally formed at Langley went on to become the man 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 ker trophy to the first Seven astronauts and I'm particularly glad that uh the decision is made been made to award the trophy this year to them I think it honors a extraordinary page in American history as well as in the history of flight and uh I hope that uh this award which in a sense closes out this particular phase of the space program will be a stimulus to uh them and to other astronauts who will carry our flag to the moon and uh perhaps even someday Beyond so it's great pleasure I present to them his celebrated [Applause] [Music] award here are some of Langley's other projects Echo an automatically inflating satellite grew out of a Langley concept and was developed there rendevu 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 h L10 craft which may someday shuttle men and Equipment through space then land like a conventional plane at an airport VTO vertical takeoff or Landing aircraft forerunners of inter city transports which fly forward at high speed and then set down like a helicopter the concept for this tilt wi craft evolved into the first operational VTO 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 [Music] Space [Music] but it's really 50 years of people people make the machines and design The Test Facilities and plan the [Music] missions this has been an Aeronautics and Space report presented by NASA the National Aeronautics and Space Administration