[567] Since this book is amply footnoted by chapter, and since so little is generally known about the recently constituted archives that provided most of my source material, I have chosen to provide readers with the following general-purpose guide to the major sources for research into NACA history at NASA Langley Research Center instead of with the traditional bibliographic essay. Those seeking guidance about historiography relevant to the NACA or about other archival collections with significant NACA materials in them should consult Alex Roland's Guide to Research in NASA History, 4th ed. (Washington: NASA History Office, 1984), or the extended bibliographic essay in Roland's Model Research: The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, 1915-1958, NASA SP-4103 (Washington, 1985), 1:300-305, both of which are richly informative and analytical.

Langley Research Center, the oldest laboratory of the NACA and NASA, possesses an historical collection that in combination with its technical library rivals any archives for aerospace history in this country. In Langley's archives (see diagram) are collections of rare books and photographs, technical reports, office memoranda, flight and wind tunnel logs, programs and minutes of major technical conferences, personal papers, transcripts of interviews with key personnel, as well as scale models of aircraft and spacecraft and other illuminating artifacts. Besides storing Langley's own historical records, the archives also include important files of the Wallops Island (Va.) rocket test range, created in 1945 as an auxiliary base of Langley laboratory and managed by Langley as part of the Pilotless Aircraft Research Division (PARD) until 1958, when Wallops achieved independent status as a NASA center.

The four most important collections in the Langley archives are (1) the NACA correspondence files, (2) the NACA research authorization files, (3) the Milton Ames Collection, and (4) the personal papers of Floyd L. Thompson and John Stack. Since they are so important, these four collections will be described fully below. Key aspects of Langley's Floyd L. Thompson Technical Library are also discussed.

Anyone who plans to do research in an organization's archives should first ask some questions about the correspondence policy in force for that organization's employees: Could they send letters directly to outside addresses? Did all letters have to go through a central office? What management official, if any, had to "sign off" the letters? Knowing the peculiarities of the correspondence policies will make it much easier to evaluate and utilize the records.

In Langley's case, a superb historical archive was created as the by-product of a tight-to-the-vest correspondence policy and a highly centralized filing system. Largely as a result of the early and continuing control by NACA executive secretary John F. Victory over the lab's bureaucratic affairs (see chapter 2), all of its outgoing correspondence was reviewed and revised up through the division level until sanctioned in its final form by the office of the chief of research; then it was signed by the engineer-in-charge, the top......

[569] .....man in the laboratory organization. Incoming letters to individuals were routed directly to them, but only after being opened by the mail clerks. Copies of all letters, incoming and outgoing, were made for central files. Each letter was placed into one or more subject files, which were organized according to an alphanumeric code unique to Langley. Within each subject, papers were then arranged by date.

There are two catalogs to the correspondence file codes in the Langley archives, one that is alphabetical by subject and the other that follows the alphanumeric code; both are the products of the lab's mail filing operation. To illustrate the nature of these catalogs, the contents of their respective first pages are reproduced below.

Langley's correspondence files are a largely untapped reservoir for aerospace history. Only a few weeks before this book went to press I found in this collection, for example, the following letter, dated the eighth of July 1920. It was addressed to Leigh Griffith, Langley's first engineer-in-charge, and was written by a young man in California who was just getting into the aircraft business: Donald W. Douglas, the soon-to-be-famous airplane designer.

2331 Fifth Street

Ocean Park, Calif.

July 8, 1920

 

Dear Leigh:

 

I suppose that you know that I am out here in your old town trying to make a go of the aircraft business here now. I left Martin the end of March, and spent some time trying to get something in a large way going here. I found this impossible at this time as the financial situation is rather uncertain. Luckily however I found a young chap with money here to back me in a small way. We are organizing under the name of the Davis-Douglas Co.

 

I am at work now on the engineering of our first job, and expect to start construction of it in a shop that I have rented down town, before the end of the month. We have hopes that we will have it in the air in November. The ship that I am laying out is a commercial type around a single Liberty motor,[571] and embodies several new schemes that on paper seem to add a great deal to the efficiency and cheapness of it. This first ship is going to be made special to do some record and stunt tricks with. I am carrying 600 gallons of gasoline and hope to be able to make the trip from here to New York non-stop, in about thirty hours. This will be quite an achievement and should give us the necessary advertising to help us to get further business.

 

I have thought that if we were able to equip the plane with a supercharger and an adjustable pitch propeller, we might be able to pick up enough speed at about 18,000 feet to make the trip in considerably less time. I wrote the Army bunch in Dayton and they told me that they would not give the General Electric Co. permission to sell us or loan us one of the Moss superchargers at this time. Some weeks ago I went in to see your father [owner of a machine works from which Douglas's company was getting machined parts] and he told me that they had built a supercharger for the National Advisory committee. I am wondering if it is at all possible that the Advisory committee might regard our attempt seriously and take the opportunity of getting some long distance data on their supercharger, by lending it to us for the flight. There is no question but that we will make the attempt with or without it, and I really would imagine that we might be able to get some very valuable dope on the supercharger and its use in this sort of work, for the Advisory Committee. I wish that you would let me know if there is any possibility of them considering such an arrangement, and if they do, that you would send me the data on it, as soon as possible. I am at a stage now where I could allow room for its installation if I knew what it was like. Also tell me what you think of this particular supercharger, and what tests it has been put to.

 

I certainly do enjoy being back here, and the kids and the wife are of course getting a lot out of it too. I hate to make you homesick, so I won't tell you how much the same as old times it seems back here. I miss you at the Vidarnar noons when I get in there, but Tiny is back on the job again, and so it looks much the same as ever. Why don't you come back out to God's country again. I sure hope that I can make a living out here and get things humming again in an aeronautical way here.

 

Well Leigh I would appreciate very much having some news about your personal welfare, as well as the dope on this supercharger stuff. Charlotte joins me in sending the best of regards to you and Mrs. Griffith.

 

As ever, yours sincerely

[Signed] Donald W. Douglas

Brief further research indicates that Griffith went out of his way to help Douglas find a suitable supercharger. He sent the young airplane designer an assembly drawing showing the NACA Root-type supercharger as applied to a Liberty engine (an application which had never actually been made), but he advised him against using this particular device on Douglas's proposed airplane because the device was still in a preliminary test phase of design.

[572] The information in this letter very likely fits into the history of Douglas's round-the-world biplanes, the famous "World Cruisers" of 1924, which constituted his company's first big order. In any case, the letter exemplifies the valuable and yet-to-be-used historical information in the correspondence files of the Langley archives.

Although the correspondence files are tremendously valuable, the single most important source for aeronautical history at Langley is the NACA research authorization files. These files permit the historian to recreate the entire NACA research procedure for a given project from the raw research idea through the final polished report.

What exactly was an NACA research authorization? Whenever a project for research at Langley was approved by NACA headquarters, a research authorization (or RA) was signed by the chairman of the executive committee and forwarded to the lab for execution. Technically Langley was supposed to have an RA for each of its investigations, and each RA was expected to lead to the publication of an NACA report. Each RA had a title and a number, and each included information on the how and why of the investigation. Sometimes this information was stated very briefly and rather vaguely; other times it was expressed at great length and in detail. From the time of the authorization on, a copy of any letter or document, incoming or outgoing, that in any way concerned the subject of the RA was filed chronologically in the specific RA folder (as well as in the appropriate correspondence files). Thus by studying the RA files one can get a pretty clear idea of how the NACA went about its business. The files shed light on such things as the respective roles of headquarters and the lab in selecting and conducting research projects, the publications policies of the Committee, and the relations of NACA staff members with clients and colleagues.

Since there are over 2000 research authorization files, this collection provides virtually virgin territory for historical research. I looked in detail only at two or three dozen RA files. In preparation for Model Research, Alex Roland examined, I presume, about the same number. Clearly scholars have so far only scratched the surface of this prime source for NACA history.

The RA files are maintained in sequence in the archives from RA No. 1, "Comparison of mathematical analysis and model tests of air propellers," issued 18 July 1918, through RA No. 1584, "Free-fall tests to determine stability derivatives of Dove guided missile," issued 24 November 1950. (RAs after 1950, at present stored elsewhere, will be moved into the archives.) In the archive there is also a card file to the RA collection that cross-references subjects and titles of technical reports with RA numbers and the file codes of correspondence.

Still, the RA files are not easy to work with. Because of the vague and rather indiscriminate nature of the majority of RA titles and the built-in flexibility of RA procedure (discussed in chapter 2), it can be very hard now for anyone, even the talented and experienced Langley file clerks and librarians, to match individual research projects to the specific RA, or RAs, that covered them administratively. The best example of this difficulty during research for this book was my attempt to find the RA covering the preparation of the "Theory of Wing Sections of Arbitrary Shape," an important paper written by Langley physicist Theodore Theodorsen in 1931 and published by the NACA as tech. rpt. (TR) 411. (The contents of this paper are analyzed in chapter 4.)

On the day I was working on this problem, veteran Langley engineer Axel T. Mattson visited my office, and I enlisted his help to solve it. The logical first step was to identify all [573] RAs originating before 1931 whose titles most closely matched the subject of Theodorsen's paper. With Mattson's help, I narrowed down the possibilities to nine RAs, all of which in one way or another concerned airfoils or wing sections:

No. 43-"Pressure distribution for thick airfoil sections"

No. 77-"Pressure distribution over tapered thick airfoils"

No. 203-"Study of characteristics of very thick airfoil sections"

No. 206-"Investigation of airfoils tapered in form and section"

No. 217-"Investigation of a series of wing models with fiat lower surfaces and varying upper cambers"

No. 254-"Investigation of methods of developing airfoil shapes to obtain desired characteristics"

No. 290-"Investigation of effect of thickness and mean camber line shape on airfoil characteristics"

No. 350-"Determination of standard design characteristics for certain airfoils"

No. 351-"Investigation of compressibility effects on airfoils"

We deemed RA 254, "Investigation of methods of developing airfoil shapes to obtain desired characteristics," our best chance, as it matched the subject of Theodorsen's paper most closely, and then ranked the other eight RAs in order of our evaluation of their relevancy.

One by one we pulled dusty RA files down from their shelves, with no success. Having spent about an hour exhausting our list of nine RAs, Mattson and I went back to the complete list of RA titles I had prepared early in my research. We found ten more RAs that we thought might have covered Theodorsen's wing-section analysis, but none of their titles actually looked anywhere as promising as had those of our first nine. We examined the first RA on this second list-No. 236, "Investigation of wing flutter"-because we knew that its subject was one of Theodorsen's specialties. When RA 236 also proved a washout, we gave up the idea of proceeding further with our method.

I then asked Mattson which research section Theodorsen had worked in during 1929 and 1930; I knew that Theodorsen became head of the Physical Research Division when it was created in 1931, but was unsure where he had worked previously. Though Mattson did not come to work at Langley until just before World War II, he knew the older crowd and replied that he thought Theodorsen had been a member of the Atmospheric Wind Tunnel (AWT) section.

Having failed to find anything in the RA files, I now decided to look into the correspondence files for contemporary records of the AWT section. Entry into these records was easy, thanks to the alphabetized subject guide discussed above. Mattson and I looked through some letters from the late 1920s and early 1930s, and though we saw nothing dealing with Theodorsen's paper, we did see in the upper left-hand corners of many of the letters, in parentheses next to the Central File code, the numbers 88 and 237. We knew that these numbers were cross-references to RA numbers where other copies of the same document had been filed by Langley clerks. The numbers meant that the administration of much of the work being done in the AWT section during this period had been covered by RAs 88 and 237.

RA 88, "Investigation of scale effect on airfoils," and RA 237, "Investigation of lateral stability with particular reference to rotary stability at large angles of attack," did not seem to match the subject of Theodorsen's paper. Of the two RAs, however, No. 88 looked closer to it. So we got a few folders of 88 down from the shell and started looking through [574] them. We found a memo with a note penciled in at the bottom, "TR 411 changed to RA 237."

TR 411 was the published NACA technical report by Theodorsen which we were looking for, so Mattson and I knew that our hunt was over. Mattson was astonished to find where it had led, for RA 237, "Investigation of lateral stability with particular reference to rotary stability at large angles of attack," had nothing whatever to do with the subject of Theodorsen's paper. In fact, Mattson noted (and I agreed completely) that RA 237 would have been just about the last place we would have looked for the administrative records of Theodorsen's work. RA 237 covered TR 411 simply because it was an RA which was generally blanketing a number of diverse research projects then being conducted at Langley by the AWT section. Scholars wishing to use the NACA research authorization files may benefit by keeping our experience in mind.

A third important collection of historical documents in the Langley archives is the Milton Ames Collection. In the early 1970s Ames, an ex-Langley engineer who had served as chief of aerodynamics at NACA headquarters from 1949 to 1958, began research for what he hoped would be a complete and publishable history of the laboratory. Although he did not achieve his goal, Ames did pull together hundreds of significant documents. Organized into folders which he titled and deposited into seven oversize boxes, the Ames Collection is stored-according to the original box scheme and folder titles-in file cabinets in the LaRC archive.

The Ames Collection is especially enlightening because it was created by an old NACA hand, a product of the institutional culture under investigation. The documents he found significant enough to include for research tell us something about both Ames's identity as a member of the NACA "corporation" and his approach as an engineer to historical understanding. Furthermore, since Ames was one of the NACA's most talented and forward-looking aerodynamicists, his choice of key technical papers for historical examination is very helpful to the nonspecialist.

The entire collection, comprising seven boxes, is outlined below.

WRIGHT BROTHERS

Articles on early flights from

The Croatan Courier, 17 Dec. 1936

Journal of the American Historical Society, Fall 1966

Collier's, 25 Dec. 1948

Air Scoop [Langley in-house newsletter], 22 June 1953

Air Scoop, 22 Dec. 1944

LMAL Bulletin, 18-24 Dec. 1943

Reprint from Above and Beyond, 1968

Folder, Kill Devil Hill National Memorial

Guide to NA CA Historical Sources at Langley

Original army contract with Wright brothers, 1907-1908

Miscellaneous photographs, Wright Flyer

ESTABLISHMENT OF BRITISH ADVISORY COMMITTEE FOR AERONAUTICS

Papers, notices, 1909 interim report, 1909-1911 report

[575] NEED FOR AN AERONAUTICAL LABORATORY IN AMERICA

From Dr. Zahm's papers, nos. 33, 34, 40, and 54

SMITHSONIAN ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON THE LANGLEY AERODYNAMICAL LABORATORY

Dr. Zahm's paper no. 53

SURVEYS OF AERONAUTICAL LABORATORIES IN EUROPE, 1913-1920

Papers by:

Dr. Zahm, nos. 42, 43, and 55

Dr. Hunsaker, articles from Flying, 1914

William Knight, NACA Technical Note 17, 1920

AERONAUTICAL RESEARCH IN CANADA

AGARD paper by J. H. Parkin, June 1955

"First Wind Tunnel Constructed and Placed in Operation," 1919

EARLY HISTORY OF AERONAUTICAL RESEARCH IN GERMANY

Schlichting letter listing references Hermann Schlichting, Univ. of Göttingen]

MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS ON AVIATION UP TO ESTABLISHMENT OF NACA

Dr. Zahm's paper no. 49

Three memoranda from Lee Dickinson to Milton Ames

Washington newspaper clippings

LEGISLATION PERTAINING TO NACA, AND APRIL 1958 SUMMARY

ESTABLISHMENT OF NACA

Articles from Flying, April and July 1915

War Department letter calling for first meeting of NACA

Letter from acting chairman to comptroller of Treasury, 27 July 1915

Dr. Walcott letter to Lt. Richardson, 8 April 1915

Letter from first chairman to president, 23 April 1915

Letter from Department of Commerce to Lt. Richardson, 19 October 1915

Miscellaneous papers, 1941-1950

NACA MEMBERSHIP, CHAIRMEN, ETC.

Articles from Flying, 1915

Summary of NACA membership, 16 March 1960

FIRST MEETING OF NACA

Minutes and photographs of members, 1915

LANGLEY SITE SELECTION AND TRANSFER OF LAND TO NACA

NACA STATEMENT OF POLICY, OCTOBER 1917, AND EXECUTIVE ORDER DATED 20 MAY 1918

MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING WITH THE ARMY RE USE OF LANGLEY FIELD BY NACA, 1919

[576] SUMMARY OF IMPORTANT EVENTS IN EARLY HISTORY OF NACA, 1915-1917 (SUMMARY PREPARED DECEMBER 1929)

NACA PARIS OFFICE (ESTABLISHED MAY 1919)

MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS ON AERONAUTICAL RESEARCH IN USA, 1921-1925

"Aeronautical Research in USA," Edward P. Warner, May 1921

"Making America Independent in the Air," Mechanical Engineering, September 1923

"Aeronautics in the Government-The National Advisory Committee," Charles D. Walcott, June 1925

"A Chronology of U.S. Aviation," Aircraft Year Book, 1949

EARLY REVIEWS AND SUMMARIES-NACA AND LANGLEY

NACA library reference listing regarding NACA, Nov. 1943

Early talks by E. R. Sharp regarding origins of NACA and Langley

LMAL chronology through 1933

British view of NACA, by Sir Roy Fedden

John F. Victory interview with representative from Langley AFB historical office, 1944

NACA press release regarding need for national aeronautical policy, 1922

Chapters from various versions of John F. Victory's NACA history:

"History and Development of the NACA"

"Some Direct Accomplishments of the NACA"

"Accomplishments"

MISCELLANEOUS LANGLEY BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Murals in the Administration Building

House organization

Miscellaneous papers

LANGLEY FIELD, VIRGINIA-HISTORY AND CONSTRUCTION (AIR CORPS VIEWPOINT)

Aviation Edition, Hampton Monitor-July 1918

Commanding officers, Langley Field, 1917-1946

Excerpt from Look Homeward, Angel (reference to construction of Langley Field during World War I)

Photographs-Mitchell bombing results

"Langley Field 1917-1945," Journal of the American Aviation Historical Society, Spring 1965

Colonel Carl F. Greene, AF liaison officer

"Early Langley Field Aircraft," Journal of the American Aviation Historical Society, Fall 1966

LANGLEY LAND RECORDS AND DEEDS

Original land records (Elizabeth City County)

Early deeds regarding Langley

Langley plats-photographs of clerk of court's documents

George Wythe birthplace

[577] EARLY CONSTRUCTION, LANGLEY RESEARCH STATION

Correspondence regarding White Engineering Company, 1918-1919

Atmospheric Wind Tunnel, papers about land allotment and construction

DEDICATION OF LANGLEY (11 JUNE 1920)

Correspondence regarding official opening of the wind tunnel and dedication of the laboratory

Invitation list

Speech of Rear Adm. David W. Taylor

Expenditures for entertainment

Official designation of field station as "Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory"

Photographic copies of 12 July 1920 editions of Newport News (Va.) Daily Press and Times Herald

VARIABLE DENSITY WIND TUNNEL-CONSTRUCTION

Land allotment

1924 report on design and operation

Copy of VDT logbook entry, 1 Aug. 1927, regarding wind tunnel fire

1931 and 1935 papers regarding VDT modifications

LANGLEY ORGANIZATION CHARTS

Correspondence on organization, and original organization chart

John Victory's draft chapter, "The Langley Laboratory" (discussing early organization and difficulties with the army)

Folders on papers regarding early organization

Files on Langley organization prior to 1952

Langley organization charts, in order from 1952

Miscellaneous selected files regarding Langley organization

LANGLEY PERSONNEL AND PERSONNEL ACTIVITIES

Folder on early personnel

General background material and personnel statistics (complement 1919-1965)

Statistics regarding personnel Personnel

training NACA emblems

Bond drives, etc.

Cafeterias

Green Cow [early social club]

Community cooperation

Activities building and related material

Miscellaneous material on personnel

Recruiting brochures

[578] ESTIMATES OF LANGLEY PLANT COSTS

1934 estimates

1936 estimates

1943 estimates

ECONOMIC VALUE OF NACA RESEARCH (SUMMARY, 1937)

PRELIMINARY (LANGLEY) DATA ON NACA BUDGET (1915-1952)

EFFORTS TO TRANSFER NACA FROM INDEPENDENT AGENCY TO OTHER AGENCIES

Proposed transfer to Bureau of Standards and War and Navy departments, 1921

Proposed transfer to Commerce Department, 1925

Proposed transfer to Commerce (Bureau of Standards), 1932-1933

McKeller Bill (S-5044), proposed abolishment of NACA and transfer of its laboratories to War Department, 1933

LANGLEY INSPECTIONS (ORIGINALLY CALLED MANUFACTURERS' CONFERENCES)

Joseph Ames's papers-First Manufacturers's Conference at Langley, 24 May 1926

Henry Reid's papers-conference books, 1926-1935

Edward P. Warner's proposal for additional industry representatives on NACA committees and subcommittees

Folder on post-World War II inspections and anniversaries

PHOTOGRAPHIC FILES

Early pictures selected from Air Scoop

Miscellaneous photographs, 1919-1935

H. J. E. Reid photographic albums:

1. Flight section

2. Wind tunnel section

Selected correspondence on Langley photographs

LOGBOOKS OF EARLY EXHIBITS

LANGLEY VISITORS' REGISTER, 1926-1934

WILBUR WRIGHT MEMORIAL LECTURES

List of lecturers from 1913 through 1935

1918, William F. Durand, "Some Outstanding Problems in Aeronautics"

1923, Joseph Ames, "Relation Between Aeronautics Research and Aircraft Design"

1932, H. E. Wimperis, "New Methods of Research in Aeronautics"

1939, George W. Lewis, "Some Modern Methods of Research in the Problems of Flight"

[579] 1949, Hugh L. Dryden, "The Aeronautical Research Scene: Goals, Methods, and Accomplishments"

1961, Abe Silverstein, "Researches in Space Flight Technology"

FOLDERS ON KEY INDIVIDUALS ASSOCIATED WITH LANGLEY HISTORY

Ames, Joseph S.

Dryden, Hugh L.

Durand, William F.

Hunsaker, Jerome C.

Langley, Samuel P.

Lewis, George W.

Lindbergh, Charles A.

Reid, Henry J. E.

Sharp, Edward R.

Stack, John

Thompson, Floyd L.

Victory, John F.

Walcott, Charles D.

Zahm, Albert F.

Biographical material-miscellaneous

CLIPPINGS (1925-1930)

1933 HURRICANE

SPECIAL PUBLICATIONS-ANNIVERSARIES, HISTORIES

CONFERENCES, CEREMONIES, INSPECTIONS, VISITORS

ECONOMIC STUDY OF 1933 AND "NOTES ON AVIATION PROGRESS THROUGH RESEARCH"

LANGLEY HISTORY (COLLECTION OF PAPERS AND TALKS ON LANGLEY HISTORY)

MISCELLANEOUS PRESS RELEASES ON LANGLEY RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE REGARDING EARLY HEADQUARTERS-LANGLEY RELATIONSHIP

LANGLEY TELEPHONE DIRECTORIES, JAN. 1963 TO MAY 1971

EARLY ENGINE COMPETITION (1920)

FATAL AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT REPORT, JN-6 44946, 20 AUGUST 1924

FORD RELIABILITY TOUR, 1926

CRASH OF THE "AMERICAN LEGION" AT LANGLEY, 26 APRIL 1927

RESEARCH ACTIVITIES DURING 1920s

Early model airplane use

Early noise study

Complaints on early flight reporting

[580] Langley documents on early research programs

Cowling research

Lockheed Air Express

Propeller Research Tunnel

"Little America" (telegram regarding NACA cowling and modified propellers)

Background to boundary-layer-control research

Eastman Jacobs's laminar-flow work

Rotary-wing aircraft

NACA PREPARATIONS PRIOR TO WORLD WAR II

Policy regarding laboratory in time of war (George Lewis's memorandum dated 1 Dec. 1936 for chairman of special committee on policy regarding membership of employees in military reserves)

Westover Committee report to NACA chairman, 19 Aug. 1938; subject: Relation of the NACA to national defense in time of war

Initial report of Air Corps-NACA committee making recommendations for priority of research projects in LMAL program, 22 Dec. 1939

Authorization to the NACA's director of aeronautical research from the NACA executive committee to carry out investigations for the army and navy for the duration of the war, and to issue research authorizations as required

John F. Victory letter to NACA laboratories regarding views of high government officials on the NACA, 17 Feb. 1943

NACA library listing of references pertaining to NACA preparation for war and support of World War II

LANGLEY CONTRIBUTIONS TO AMES AND LEWIS LABORATORIES

Ames Laboratory

Lewis Laboratory

LANGLEY ACTIVITIES DURING WORLD WAR II ERA

NACA studies for U.S. Army Air Forces of factors affecting performance of advanced military aircraft

Langley contributions to controlled bombs

Miscellaneous files, World War II era

Research studies for Army Air Forces and navy on supersonic aircraft (by Macon C. Ellis, Jr., and Clinton E. Brown)

Wallops Island and miscellaneous related material

MEAD COMMITTEE INVESTIGATION-ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE

U.S. Senate special committee investigating the national defense program, 1946

NATIONAL AERONAUTICAL RESEARCH POLICY, 21 MARCH 1946

POST-WORLD WAR II RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

National program of transonic and supersonic research

Transonic (slotted throat) wind tunnels

[581] Flight research

Research airplane program

GAO SURVEY OF NACA, 1953

25TH ANNIVERSARY OF LANGLEY TOWING TANK AND FULL-SCALE WIND TUNNEL, 1956

NATIONAL AWARDS TO LANGLEY

Collier trophies

Air Medal for Herbert Hoover [NACA test pilot] for research airplane flight testing

EXTRA COPIES OF "AIR SCOOP"

MISCELLANEOUS AIRSHIP PHOTOGRAPHS FROM MELVIN N. COUGH

AREA RULE AND RICHARD WHITCOMB

LANGLEY CONTRIBUTIONS TO B-58

V /STOL RESEARCH

Summary papers, various authors

Charles Zimmerman's V-173

HIGH-SPEED SUBMARINE "ALBACORE" RESEARCH FOR U.S. NAVY

RESEARCH ON FLEXIBLE WINGS

LANGLEY SPECIAL GROUP ON RESEARCH FOR GUIDED MISSILES

(Only copy of file in existence)

LANGLEY RESEARCH FACILITIES

Wind tunnels, other facilities, and research techniques

Miscellaneous files on facilities

"NACA RESEARCH INTO SPACE," 1957

"ECHO I" AND WILLIAM J. O'SULLIVAN

EARLY MANNED SPACE FLIGHT

1958 proposals

Early Project Mercury articles

Project Mercury tracking range

Mercury astronauts

PROJECT APOLLO

Langley contributions

Genesis of lunar orbit rendezvous (LOR) concept

Miscellaneous material on LOR concept, including letters from John C. Houbolt to Dr. Robert Seamons

[582] Langley working paper, "Preliminary Geologic Evaluation and Apollo Landing Analysis of Areas Photographed by

Lunar Orbiter II," March 1967

PAPERS AND TALKS RELATING TO HISTORY OF LANGLEY

Papers by Jerome C. Hunsaker, 1941-1942

Talks by John F. Victory, Hugh L. Dryden, Floyd L. Thompson,

Arthur Regier, John Stack, and Axe! Mattson, 1945-1954

Talks by Langley and NACA officials

Talks by Floyd L. Thompson

Talks- Miscellaneous Langley's 50th Anniversary

Floyd L. Thompson's opening remarks

Miscellaneous

Photographs

Anniversary plaque

Miscellaneous publicity information

Outside publications "America's Race for the Moon," story of Apollo Project in New York Times

Miscellaneous technical papers by Langley authors

Langley flight projects reference manual

The Floyd L. Thompson Collection. Actually this collection holds more for the space historian than it does for the aeronautical historian. Most of its contents postdate the NACA; they derive from Thompson's term as director of the NASA Langley Research Center, 1960-1968. Box C of this collection, though, contains some important documents on NACA research dating back to the 1930s. (Thompson began working for the NACA at Langley in July 1926.) The entire collection of papers was donated to the LaRC archive in 1980 by Thompson's widow, Mrs. Jean Thompson. The following reproduces Floyd Thompson's own inventory of the subjects of the collection.

MORL (Manned Orbital Research Laboratory)

LUNAR ORBITER (historical notes)

APOLLO

MERCURY SCOUT X-15

SST

PASSIVE COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE

LARGE BOOSTERS

MISCELLANEOUS TECHNICAL PROPOSALS AND MEMOS

EARLY SPACE PROGRAM PLANNING: MEMOS AND ORGANIZATIONS VISITS AND EVENTS

Mercury

University of Tennessee

ICASE (Institute for Computer Applications in Science and Engineering)-Munich

Martin Plant-Denver, Colorado

University of Michigan

Boeing anniversary

AGARD (Advisory Group for Aeronautical Research and Development, NATO)-Athens, Greece

British flying display

West Coast visits (Boeing, Lockheed).

Miscellaneous

NEWPORT NEWS CYCLOTRON AND VARC (Virginia Associated Research Campus)

SPECIAL ASSIGNMENTS

Elliot Committee regarding industrial funding

Consultations on aeronautical development

President's Advisory Council on Management Improvement

ARPA workshop, May 1970

NRC panel on hydrodynamics of submerged bodies

NRC panel on submarines

Committee for disposition of NASA artifacts

Test site for space shuttle engine

OLD LANGLEY FLIGHT RESEARCH PROGRAMS

HISTORICAL NOTES ON FLYING QUALITIES WORK

OLD CONFERENCE MEMOS AND HISTORICAL NOTES ON DYNAMIC LOADS AND STRUCTURES RESEARCH

TRANSONIC RESEARCH

NOTES, COMMENTS, STATEMENTS ON MANAGEMENT PHILOSOPHY

AERONAUTICS POLICY, 1970

LANGLEY'S 50TH ANNIVERSARY

ROTARY CLUB TALKS

LOCAL AFFAIRS

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN HONORARY DOCTORATE

WILLIAM AND MARY HONORARY DOCTORATE

[584] RETIREMENT PARTY, 17 OCT. 1968

PERSONAL MATTERS, INCLUDING CORRESPONDENCE REGARDING APPOINTMENT AS CENTER DIRECTOR

NOTES ON OTHER PERSONS

MISCELLANEOUS TECHNICAL REPORTS AND PAPERS

COPIES OF PUBLIC TALKS, PUBLICITY STATEMENTS, PHOTOS

LETTER TO NATIONAL ACADEMY OF ENGINEERING

NUMEROUS TECHNICAL ARTICLES AND PAPERS, MOSTLY PUBLISHED

The John Stack Collection. This collection is more valuable to the aeronautical historian than is the Thompson collection because it includes a greater number and wider chronological range of older business correspondence and research program files-many of which concern Stack's pioneering work in transonic and supersonic technology. The papers were donated to the Langley archives by Stack's son, Peter, who, like Mrs. Thompson, chose to keep several of the more private letters in the family's possession, at least for the time being. The papers, which are in folders labeled by John Stack, have been organized into sections of file drawers according to categories:

CROCCO CURVE

KOCHEL ULTRA-SUPERSONIC WIND TUNNEL DEVELOPMENT

NEW TYPES OF TUNNELS

USES OF GAS OTHER THAN AIR IN WIND TUNNELS

HODOCRAPH REPORT

8-FOOT HIGH-SPEED TUNNEL OPERATIONS

SUPERSONIC WIND TUNNEL AT WRIGHT FIELD

4-FOOT SUPERSONIC TUNNEL

MISCELLANEOUS WIND TUNNEL DATA

SPECIAL TYPE TUNNELS-SLOTTED TEST SECTIONS

REPOWERING 16-FOOT HIGH-SPEED TUNNEL

UNITARY PLAN WIND TUNNEL

REVISED UNITARY PROGRAM

GAS DYNAMICS LABORATORY

FLUTTER TUNNEL

[585] SUPERSONIC COMPRESSOR

ABERDEEN SUPERSONIC WIND TUNNEL

MADELUNG HIGH-PRESSURE WATER TUNNEL

PROPOSED AIR ENGINEERING DEVELOPMENT CENTER

NATIONAL SUPERSONIC RESEARCH CENTER

ELECTRIC POWER SUPPLY

REFRIGERATION

SCHLIEREN PHOTOGRAPHS

MISCELLANEOUS OPTICAL SYSTEMS SCHLIEREN PHOTOGRAPHS-BRITISH NATIONAL PHYSICAL LABORATORY

AFTERGLOW PHOTOGRAPHS

SPHERE PHOTOS OVER A RANGE OF MACH NUMBERS

JET ANALYSIS, INDUCTED

INTERACTION OF SHOCK AND BOUNDARY LAYER

SHROUDED PROPELLERS

DATA ON VARIOUS NACA AIRFOIL SECTIONS

DRAFTS OF STACK'S WRIGHT BROTHERS LECTURE, "COMPRESSIBLE FLOWS IN AERONAUTICS," 17 DEC. 1944

MISCELLANEOUS TECHNICAL REPORTS

GAS TURBINE CONFERENCE AT GENERAL ELECTRIC, 1945

HIGH-SPEED AERODYNAMICS CONFERENCE, NACA-NAVY-ARMY, 13 JULY 1945

STACK'S REPORT ON ABERDEEN CONFERENCE, 17 JAN. 1946

AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY MEETING, 25 APRIL 1946

NACA CONFERENCE ON SUPERSONIC AERODYNAMICS, AMES LAB, 4 JUNE 1946

LANGLEY CONFERENCE ON HIGH-SPEED AERODYNAMIC THEORY, 3 FEB. 1947

LANGLEY CONFERENCE ON SUPERSONIC AERODYNAMICS, 19-20 JUNE 1947

AMES CONFERENCE ON SUPERSONIC AERODYNAMICS, 31 AUG. 1948

AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY MEETING, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, DEC. 1949

[586] MISCELLANEOUS CONFERENCE REPORTS

CONFERENCES

MINUTES OF MEETINGS

SUBCOMMITTEE ON HIGH-SPEED AERODYNAMICS

COMMITTEE ON ADVANCED STUDY

AD HOC PANEL ON LONG-RANGE AIR-TO-AIR GUIDED MISSILES

DRAPER COMMITTEE

DOD TECHNICAL ADVISORY PANEL ON AERODYNAMICS, AD HOC GROUP ON WATER-BASED AIRCRAFT

HENRY J. E. REID'S TRIP TO EUROPE, 1944

DEVELOPMENTS IN HIGH-SPEED AERONAUTICS DURING WORLD WAR II

RIPARBELLI REPORT

LETTERS FROM COLEMEN DUPONT DONALDSON ON GERMAN SCIENTISTS AT WRIGHT FIELD, 1946

BELL TELEPHONE LAB

PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE

MEMOS FOR ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR

LETTERS BETWEEN PROF. CARLO FERRARI, UNIVERSITY OF TURIN, AND ANTONIO FERRI, NACA, 1947-1948

MEMOS ON AIRFOILS MEMO FROM HARTLEY SOULE, 1948

MEMOS FOR FILES

MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE

NORTH AMERICAN P-51

HIGH-SPEED BOMBER PROGRAM, 1945

SUPERSONIC AIRPLANE

PROJECT 506

WATER-BASED AIRCRAFT

REPUBLIC P-47B

[587] B-35 ELEVON

PROPELLER FOR SPITFIRE 21

XP-69 HORIZONTAL TAIL

EAGLE

REPUBLIC AVIATION CORPORATION 5-YEAR PLAN

SUPERSONIC TRANSPORT (SST)

GROUND EFFECTS MACHINES

V/STOL

MUTUAL WEAPONS DEFENSE PROGRAM (MWDP)

VTOL-FAA PROJECT "HUMMINGBIRD"

NATO BRIEFING, 13 OCT. 1960

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE BRIEFING, 28-31 OCT.

1960 TRAINING CENTER FOR EXPERIMENTAL AERODYNAMICS, BRUSSELS

STACK'S TRIPS TO EUROPE ON MWDP, JUNE-OCT. 1959

MISCELLANEOUS DATA FROM 1959 MISCELLANEOUS DATA FROM 1960

CORRESPONDENCE FOR FISCAL YEAR 1961

ITALY'S HYPERSONIC TUNNEL BRITISH

HAWKER P-1127 AIRCRAFT

BE-53 ENGINE DATA INCLUDING SWALLOW AND HAWKER P.1127

TFX DEVELOPMENT

HISTORICAL NOTES

SOURCE SELECTION BOARD

CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS

UNITED KINGDOM TSR-2

MISCELLANEOUS PHOTOGRAPHS

BLUEPRINT DRAWINGS

"STACK'S STUFF," MISCELLANEOUS

What really makes Langley one of the very best places in the country for research in aeronautical history is the technical library in which the historical archives are located. Besides holding major collections (over 3.8 million volumes) in the physical sciences and engineering with emphasis in aerospace science and technology, aeronautics, structures, materials, acoustics, energy, electronics, and the environment, and [588] besides holding supporting collections in physics, chemistry, mathematics, and management, the library also preserves the complete NACA publications series-over 16,000 reports in more than 1000 bound and nearly 2000 unbound volumes-including Technical Reports (TRs), Technical Notes (TNs), Technical Memorandums (TMs), Wartime Reports (WRs), Aircraft Circulars (ACs), Research Memorandums (RMs), Advance Confidential Reports (ACRs), Advance Restricted Reports (ARRs), Confidential Bulletins (CBs), Restricted Bulletins (RBs), and Memorandum Reports (MRs). (For an analysis of the NACA publications series, see Roland, Model Research, app. G, pp. 551-567.)

What gives the library its unparalleled strength as a place for historical research, though, is the fact that its staff maintains the same index to aeronautical literature that was begun by the NACA in the 1920s. Cards reference tens of thousands of aeronautical papers from all over the world by subject, author, title, and, in the case of NACA reports and research authorizations, by number. Many of these papers are unpublished or classified. This makes the NACA card file one of this country's most treasured guides to aeronautical information. Langley's file is all the more precious because it is the only set extant.

The library is accredited and open to the public.

Photographic Collection. Langley's collection of photographs (housed separately from the library) runs to roughly 100,000 negatives, all of which are logged by date and by subject. The motion picture film collection (part of which is housed in the library and part in the separate photographic laboratory in building 1155) is also extensive, but most of the films are not in any shape to be loaned out for exhibition. There is a subject card file to this motion picture collection.

Anyone interested in conducting historical research at Langley should contact Richard T. Layman, Historical Program Coordinator, Mail Stop 123 (telephone 804/865-3688), or Sue K. Seward, reference librarian, Mail Stop 185 (804/865-2634), Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia 23665.

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