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Following the creation of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in 1915, a unique flight research operations division was established at the nation's first civilian aeronautics research laboratory, the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory. Langley flight research personnel helped the nation's aircraft industry bloom during the Golden Era of aviation throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Langley's flight research then helped win World War II with performance-enhancing modifications to new aircraft. During the cold war, Langley helped the country maintain an edge in aeronautics over its Warsaw Pact rivals. When the space race began, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was created in 1958 and Langley's pilots were instrumental in training astronauts. In addition to advancing rotorcraft during the 1960s and 1970s, Langley research pioneered a multitude of military and civil Vertical Short Takeoff and Landing (V/STOL) concepts. During the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, Langley research developed advancements in general and commercial aviation technologies.
The goal of this publication is to provide an overview of the topic of revolutionary research in aeronautics at Langley, including many examples of research efforts that offer significant potential benefits, but have not yet been applied. The discussion also includes an overview of how innovation and creativity is stimulated within the Center, and a perspective on the future of innovation. The documentation of this topic, especially the scope and experiences of the example research activities covered, is intended to provide background information for future researchers.
Space flight has long been a subject of interest both to scientists and to the general public. Science fiction became popular with the works of Jules Verne, whose fanciful stories of space exploits inspired many later science fiction publications. These stories were usually not based on valid science and technology or they were ahead of the developments that might have made them possible. These works, however, served to stimulate thought on space flight for many years. Some groups, such as the British Interplanetary Society, made serious studies of the requirements for space flight. These efforts failed to lead to practical developments because of lack of financial support or interest from governmental organizations or from the public. These early studies had little effect on actual developments in the space program because, with greater support and larger numbers of investigators, the results were quickly rediscovered and not until later was it found that some important results had been worked out previously. Studies of the possible military applications of space flight were started by military organizations in the United States about 1950, but these studies were classified secret. Many were unaware of any activity in this field until the nation was startled by the Russian launching of Sputnik. The last chapter of the preceding volume on the history of the author's work at Langley describes how the nation was galvanized into action and started a national space program. These developments are described in more detail in the book Spaceflight Revolution. The advent of the space program was a welcome event to many of the research groups at Langley. One reason for this attitude was that aeronautical research had reached a plateau at this time. Many of the research contributions of Langley and other National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) centers had reached fruition in the design and production of advanced airplanes. These airplanes included jet bombers and transports, and supersonic fighter airplanes. Research and design work on the supersonic transports, the British Concorde and the Russian TU144, had progressed to a point that construction could proceed with some assurance of success. No really revolutionary advances for atmospheric aircraft were envisioned at that time or have occurred in the ensuing years. Some of the wind-tunnel organizations, however, expressed concern that their work might be cut back or otherwise affected by the emphasis on space research. In the case of the author's work and that of the Flight Research Division, another event occurred that required a change in direction. A NACA Headquarters edict, published in 1958, stated that no further testing of high-speed airplanes would be done at Langley. All future flight research on such airplanes was to be done at the Edwards Air Force Base in California (now called the Dryden Flight Research Center).
Expanding the Envelope is the first book to explore the full panorama of flight research history, from the earliest attempts by such nineteenth century practitioners as England's Sir George Cayley, who tested his kites and gliders by subjecting them to experimental flight, to the cutting-edge aeronautical research conducted by the NACA and NASA. Michael H. Gorn explores the vital human aspect of the history of flight research, including such well-known figures as James H. Doolittle, Chuck Yeager, and A. Scott Crossfield, as well as the less heralded engineers, pilots, and scientists who also had the "Right Stuff." While the individuals in the cockpit often receive the lion's share of the public's attention, Expanding the Envelope shows flight research to be a collaborative engineering activity, one in which the pilot participates as just one of many team members. Here is more than a century of flight research, from well before the creation of NACA to its rapid transformation under NASA. Gorn gives a behind the scenes look at the development of groundbreaking vehicles such as the X-1, the D-558, and the X-15, which demonstrated manned flight at speeds up to Mach 6.7 and as high as the edge of space.
Two-volume collection of case studies on aspects of NACA-NASA research by noted engineers, airmen, historians, museum curators, journalists, and independent scholars. Explores various aspects of how NACA-NASA research took aeronautics from the subsonic to the hypersonic era.-publisher description.