THE NATIONAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE	FOR AERONAUTICS (NACA)

NASA FACT SHEET
NOVEMBER 1990
 
In 1915, Congress created the National Advisory Committee
for Aeronautics (NACA) with an appropriation of just $5,000.
 The Committee had a grand mission compared to its modest
funds:  to regain the position of aeronautical preeminence that
America had lost to European aviation pioneers by the start of
World War I.  

From that modest beginning, the NACA grew into the world's
premier aeronautics research organization, pushing back the
frontiers of flight for more than four decades.

In 1920, the NACA opened Langley Memorial Aeronautical
Laboratory (today's Langley Research Center) in Hampton, Va.
Langley quickly grew into a sprawling complex of wind tunnels
and test facilities where NACA engineers made invaluable
contributions to both fundamental aerodynamics and applied
aeronautical research.  

During the 1920s and 1930s, the Committee tested 78 basic
airfoil shapes that were forerunners of today's advanced
designs.  And in 1929, the NACA won the Collier Trophy--
America's most prestigious aviation award--for its design of a
cowling to reduce drag around that era's radial engines while
providing the required cooling.

Shortly before and during World War II, NACA wind tunnels
tested the aerodynamics of all U.S. fighter aircraft in an
extensive drag reduction program.  By pointing out ways in
which these aircraft could gain even a few miles per hour
extra, the NACA effort often made the difference between
victory and defeat in air combat over Europe and the Pacific.  

During the war years, the NACA added two new sophisticated
research installations:  Ames Aeronautical Laboratory (Ames
Research Center), Moffett Field, Calif. in 1940 and the Aircraft
Engine Research Laboratory (Lewis Research Center),
Cleveland, Ohio in 1942.

The NACA also conducted numerous in-flight research
programs during the late 1940s and early 1950s.  Committee
pilots flew state-of-the-art aircraft such as the "X-series"
planes out of Edwards Air Force Base, obtaining invaluable
data that the aviation industry later incorporated into next-
generation supersonic designs.  
 
On November 20, 1953, NACA pilot Scott Crossfield guided the
D-58-II Skyrocket to Mach 2.005, becoming the first person to
fly twice the speed of sound.  In July of the following year, the
NACA High-Speed Flight Research Station (now Ames-Dryden
Flight Research Facility) was officially established at
Edwards.

When the Space Age dawned in the mid-fifties, the NACA was
there.  Much of the Committee's research on atmospheric
reentry was subsequently applied to early satellite programs
and America's first manned space endeavor, Project Mercury.
And when NASA was established in October 1958, NACA
centers and personnel formed the nucleus of the fledgling
aerospace agency.

Today, NASA remains true to its NACA heritage.  The agency
manages a broad range of long-term, fundamental aerospace
research programs such as the X-29 forward-swept-wing
technology demonstrator project, propulsion, materials and
structures research for the National Aero-Space Plane
Program, and flight safety efforts such as development of new
nondestructive inspection methods for aging aircraft.