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50-768: The STI Program Office is funded by the NASA Chief Information Officer (CIO) in Washington, DC. The program, which is located at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, is charged to collect NASA STI, organize it into a database, ensure that it is preserved via the National Archives and Records Administration , and release the STI via NASA portals or via other channels, such as science.gov and USA.gov. The STI Program participates in

100-437: A contract basis. 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 " thin airfoil theory " (1920s), " NACA engine cowl " (1930s), the " NACA airfoil " series (1940s), and the " area rule " for supersonic aircraft (1950s). On

150-464: 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 . After early experiments by Opel RAK with rocket propulsion leading to the first public flight of

200-762: A gantry over a simulated lunar landscape. There was experimental work on some Lunar Landing Research Vehicles (LLRV). Langley Research Center supported NASA's mission with the designing of a spacecraft for a landing on Mars. (see the Mars Exploration Rover .) Langley Research Center conducts Earth science research to support NASA's mission. LRC scientists and engineers have won the Collier Trophy 5 times, listed below. 37°05′33″N 76°22′57″W  /  37.0925°N 76.3825°W  / 37.0925; -76.3825 NACA The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics ( NACA )

250-433: 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

300-629: A rocket plane, the Opel RAK.1 , in 1929 and eventual military programs at Heinkel and Messerschmitt by Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, the US entered the race to supersonic planes and spaceflight in the 1940s. Although the Bell X-1 was commissioned by the Air Force and flown by Air Force test pilot Chuck Yeager , when it exceeded Mach 1 NACA was officially in charge of the testing and development of

350-552: Is now used in designing all transonic and supersonic aircraft. 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. On November 21, 1957, Hugh Dryden , NACA's director, established

400-562: Is similar to the EBF³ process but with a thin, grated heating element as its melting apparatus. Both are run by CAD data and deal with various freeform fabrication of raw materials. Since the start of Project Gemini , Langley was a center for training of rendezvous in space. In 1965, Langley opened the Lunar Landing Research Facility for simulations of Moon landings with a mock Apollo Lunar Module suspended from

450-576: 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

500-549: The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress to maintain power at high altitude, a team of engineers from NACA solved the problems and created the standards and testing methods used to produce effective superchargers in the future. This enabled the B-17 to be used as a key aircraft in the war effort. The designs and information gained from NACA research on the B-17 were used in nearly every major U.S. military powerplant of

550-545: The Chesapeake Bay front of Langley Air Force Base , is the oldest of NASA 's field centers . LaRC has focused primarily on aeronautical research but has also tested space hardware such as the Apollo Lunar Module . In addition, many of the earliest high-profile space missions were planned and designed on-site. Langley was also considered a potential site for NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center prior to

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600-573: The Convair F-102 project and the F11F Tiger . The F-102 was meant to be a supersonic interceptor, but it was unable to exceed the speed of sound, despite the best effort of Convair engineers. The F-102 had actually already begun production when this was discovered, so NACA engineers were sent to quickly solve the problem at hand. The production line had to be modified to allow the modification of F-102s already in production to allow them to use

650-713: The Joint Strike Fighter ) but had been inactive since 2004. Langley retained transonic wind tunnel testing capabilities facilities in the National Transonic Facility , a high pressure, cryogenically cooled 8.2 feet (2.5 m) closed loop wind tunnel. LaRC also houses a large collection of various inexpensive plastic reformation machines. These machines are used in the freeform fabrication department for faster timing, better precision, and larger quantities of low-cost toys, model , and industrial plastic parts. The fabrication of plastic parts

700-564: The US Army's Ballistic Missile Agency would have a Jupiter C rocket ready to launch a satellite in 1956, only to have it delayed, and the Soviets would launch Sputnik 1 in October 1957. On January 14, 1958, Dryden published "A National Research Program for Space Technology", which stated: It is of great urgency and importance to our country both from consideration of our prestige as

750-505: The East section. Early in 1945, the center expanded to include rocket research, leading to the establishment of a flight station at Wallops Island, Virginia . A further expansion of the research program permitted Langley Research Center to orbit payloads, starting with NASA's Explorer 9 balloon satellite in mid-February 1961. As rocket research grew, aeronautics research continued to expand and played an important part when subsonic flight

800-524: The Langley Laboratory are named after aviation pioneer Samuel Pierpont Langley . The Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps had established a base there earlier that same year. The first research facilities were in place and aeronautical research was started by 1920. Initially, the laboratory included four researchers and 11 technicians. Langley Field and NACA began parallel growth as air power proved its utility during World War I . The center

850-610: The NACA was based was the British Advisory Committee for Aeronautics . In December 1912, President William Howard Taft had appointed a National Aerodynamical Laboratory Commission chaired by Robert S. Woodward , president of the Carnegie Institution of Washington . Legislation was introduced in both houses of Congress early in January 1913 to approve the commission, but when it came to a vote,

900-643: The Naval Appropriations Bill. 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." The committee of 12 people, all unpaid, were allocated a budget of $ 5,000 per year. President Woodrow Wilson signed it into law the same day, thus formally creating the Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, as it

950-744: The P-38 Lightning. 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

1000-472: 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". As of their meeting on May 26, 1958, committee members, starting clockwise from

1050-549: The STI website, the program uses social media to foster awareness of the program's activities and latest acquisitions. Presence includes Facebook , Twitter , and YouTube . NASA STI homepage 30 Years of the NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS): 1994--2024 NASA Langley Research Center The Langley Research Center ( LaRC or NASA Langley ), located in Hampton, Virginia , near

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1100-575: The Second World War. Nearly every aircraft used some form of forced induction that relied on information developed by NACA. Because of this, U.S.-produced aircraft had a significant power advantage above 15,000 feet, which was never fully countered by Axis forces. 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

1150-658: The Special Committee on Space Technology. 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. Wernher von Braun , technical director at

1200-406: The aircraft. NACA ran the experiments and data collection, and the bulk of the research used to develop the aircraft came from NACA engineer John Stack , the head of NACA's compressibility division. Compressibility is a major issue as aircraft approach Mach 1, and research into solving the problem drew heavily on information collected during previous NACA wind tunnel testing to assist Lockheed with

1250-617: The area rule. (Aircraft so altered were known as "area ruled" aircraft.) The design changes allowed the aircraft to exceed Mach 1, but only by a small margin, as the rest of the Convair design was not optimized for this. As the F-11F was the first design to incorporate this during initial design, it was able to break the sound barrier without having to use afterburner. Because the area rule was initially classified, it took several years for Whitcomb to be recognized for his accomplishment. In 1955 he

1300-404: The collaborative Open Government Initiative and is a member of CENDI , which is a partnership of Federal STI managers. The STI Program is a critical component in the worldwide activity of scientific and technical aerospace research and development. The program's charter exists so that NASA STI is promptly and widely released and available, and can be leveraged by NASA, U.S. businesses, government,

1350-599: The design and testing of the hypersonic X-43 , which achieved a world speed record of Mach 9.6 (11,800 km/h; 7,310 mph). LaRC assisted the NTSB in the investigation of the crash of American Airlines Flight 587 . Work began in July 2011 to remove the 1940s era 16 feet (4.9 m) transonic wind tunnel. The facility supported development and propulsion integration research for many military aircraft including all fighters since 1960 ( F-14 , F-15 , F-16 , F-18 and

1400-399: The early 1920s, it had adopted a new and more ambitious mission: to promote military and civilian aviation through applied research that looked beyond current needs. NACA researchers pursued this mission through the agency's impressive collection of in-house wind tunnels, engine test stands, and flight test facilities. Commercial and military clients were also permitted to use NACA facilities on

1450-543: The eventual selection of Houston , Texas. Established in 1917 by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the research center devotes two-thirds of its programs to aeronautics and the rest to space . LaRC researchers use more than 40 wind tunnels to study and improve aircraft and spacecraft safety, performance, and efficiency. Between 1958 and 1963, when NASA (the successor agency to NACA) started Project Mercury , LaRC served as

1500-574: The laminar wing profiles for the North American P-51 Mustang . 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. NACA was established on March 13, 1915, by the federal government through enabling legislation as an emergency measure during World War I to promote industry, academic, and government coordination on war-related projects. It

1550-491: The legislation was defeated. Charles D. Walcott , secretary of the Smithsonian Institution from 1907 to 1927, took up the effort, and in January 1915, Senator Benjamin R. Tillman , and Representative Ernest W. Roberts introduced identical resolutions recommending the creation of an advisory committee as outlined by Walcott. The purpose of the committee was "to supervise and direct the scientific study of

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1600-502: The main office of the Space Task Group . In September 2019, after previously serving as associate director and deputy director, Clayton P. Turner was appointed director of NASA Langley. After U.S.-German relations had deteriorated from neutral to hostile around 1916, the prospect of U.S. war entry became possible. On February 15, 1917, the newly established Aviation Week warned that the U.S. military aviation capability

1650-463: 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. NACA's first wind tunnel was formally dedicated at Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory on June 11, 1920. It was the first of many now-famous NACA and NASA wind tunnels. Although this specific wind tunnel

1700-710: The other hand, NACA's 1941 refusal to increase airspeed in their wind tunnels set Lockheed back a year in their quest to solve the problem of compressibility encountered in high speed dives made by the Lockheed P-38 Lightning . 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

1750-474: The problems of flight with a view to their practical solution, and to determine the problems which should be experimentally attacked and to discuss their solution and their application to practical questions". Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote that he "heartily [endorsed] the principle" on which the legislation was based. Walcott suggested the tactic of adding the resolution to

1800-788: The public and international entities. This allows NASA to comply with e-Government regulations. STI is collected from U.S. and international sources and then organized according to content prior to being added to the STI Repository (formerly the NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)). The STI Repository is a world-class collection of STI that includes over 4 million metadata records and over 586K full-text documents. This database has two segments: The STI Repository for publicly available NASA STI, and registered content available by registration only to NASA civil servants, contractors, and grantees. The STI website provides products, services and tools to access and benefit from NASA STI. In addition to

1850-462: The simulation of lunar gravity, and the Viking program for Mars exploration. The center also developed standards for the grooving of aircraft runways based on a previous British design used at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport . Grooved runways reduce aquaplaning which permits better grip by aircraft tires in heavy rain. This grooving is now the international standard for all runways around

1900-608: The surrounding area over the loss and transfer of so many jobs to Houston. Though they had lost out on the Manned Spacecraft Center, Langley still played an important role in conducting research and training during the Apollo Program. Langley Research Center performs critical research on aeronautics, including wake vortex behavior, fixed-wing aircraft , rotary wing aircraft , aviation safety , human factors and aerospace engineering . LaRC supported

1950-479: The world. Langley was also a contender for the site of NASA Mission Control , prior to the eventual selection of Houston, due to Langley's prominence with NASA at the time, the large existing aerospace industry already present in the Hampton Roads region, and the proximity to Washington, D.C. The selection of Houston actually took many higher-ups at Langley by surprise and caused some lingering controversy in

2000-545: Was NASA during the early years after being established). 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 , 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

2050-401: Was a United States federal agency that was founded on March 3, 1915, to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research. 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 (as

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2100-502: Was advanced and supersonic and hypersonic flight were introduced. Langley Research Center claims many historic firsts, some of which have proven to be revolutionary scientific breakthroughs. These accomplishments include: Development of the concept of research aircraft leading to supersonic flight, the world's first transonic wind tunnel, training the first crews of astronauts, the Lunar Landing Facility which provides

2150-697: Was awarded the Collier Trophy for his work on both the Tiger and the F-102. The most important design resulting from the area rule was the B-58 Hustler , which was already in development at the time. It was redesigned to take the area rule into effect, allowing greatly improved performance. This was the first US supersonic bomber, and was capable of Mach 2 at a time when Soviet fighters had only just attained that speed months earlier. The area rule concept

2200-535: Was built at NASA's Ames Research Center in California. The West Area Computers were African American , female mathematicians who worked as human computers at the Langley Research Center from 1943 through 1958. The West Computers were originally subject to Virginia's Jim Crow laws and got their name because they worked at Langley's West Area, while the white mathematicians worked in

2250-450: Was called in the legislation, on the last day of the 63rd Congress . 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. ... " On January 29, 1920, President Wilson appointed pioneering flier and aviation engineer Orville Wright to NACA's board. By

2300-591: Was less than what was operating in the European war . President Woodrow Wilson sent Jerome Hunsaker to Europe to investigate, and Hunsaker's report prompted Wilson to command the creation of the nation's first aeronautics laboratory, which became NASA Langley. In 1917, less than three years after it was created, the NACA established the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory on Langley Field . Both Langley Field and

2350-935: Was modeled on similar national agencies found in Europe: the French L'Etablissement Central de l'Aérostation Militaire in Meudon (now Office National d'Etudes et de Recherches Aerospatiales ), the German Aerodynamic Laboratory of the University of Göttingen , and the Russian Aerodynamic Institute of Koutchino (replaced in 1918 with the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI) , which is still in existence). The most influential agency upon which

2400-430: Was not unique or advanced, it enabled NACA engineers and scientists to develop and test new and advanced concepts in aerodynamics and to improve future wind tunnel design. 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 superchargers that would allow

2450-445: Was originally established to explore the field of aerodynamic research involving airframe and propulsion engine design and performance. In 1934 the world's largest wind tunnel was constructed at Langley Field with a 30-by-60-foot (9.1 m × 18.3 m) test section; it was large enough to test full-scale aircraft. It remained the world's largest wind tunnel until the 1940s, when a 40-by-80-foot (12 m × 24 m) tunnel

2500-451: 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. In 1951, NACA Engineer Richard Whitcomb determined the area rule that explained transonic flow over an aircraft. The first uses of this theory were on

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