Testing Aircraft, Exploring Space: An Illustrated History of NACA and NASA

by Roger E. Bilstein

Overview

Selected by Choice Magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title for 2003

The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics—forerunner of today's NASA—emerged in 1915, when airplanes were curiosities made of wood and canvas and held together with yards of baling wire. At the time an unusual example of government intrusion (and foresight, given the importance of aviation to national military concerns), the committee oversaw the development of wind tunnels, metal fabrication, propeller design, and powerful new high-speed aircraft during the 1920s and '30s. In this richly illustrated account, acclaimed historian of aviation Roger E. Bilstein combines the story of NACA and NASA to provide a fresh look at the agencies, the problems they faced, and the hard work as well as inventive genius of the men and women who found the solutions.

NACA research during World War II led to critical advances in U.S. fighter and bomber design and, Bilstein explains, contributed to engineering standards for helicopters. After 1945 the agency's test pilots experimented with jet-powered aircraft, testing both human and technical limits in trying to break the so-called "sound barrier." In October 1958, when the launch of the Soviet Sputnik signaled the beginning of the space race, NACA formed the nucleus of the new National Aeronautics and Space Agency. The new agency's efforts to meet President Kennedy's challenge—safely landing a man on the Moon and returning him to Earth before the end of the 1960s—is one of the great adventure stories of all time. Bilstein goes on to describe NASA's recent planetary and extraplanetary exploration, as well as its less well-known research into the future of aeronautical design.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801871580
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	05/09/2003
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.79(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Roger E. Bilstein is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Houston, Clear Lake. He is the author of Flight Patterns: Trends of Aeronautical Development in the United States, 1918-1929; Stages to Saturn: A Technological History of the Apollo/Saturn Launch Vehicles; and Flight in America: From the Wrights to the Astronauts, the last available from Johns Hopkins.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Chapter 1. Foundations for Flight, 1915–1930
Chapter 2. Aeronautics in Peace and War, 1930–1945
Chapter 3. Jets, Sonic Speed, and Satellites, 1945–1958
Chapter 4. On the Fringes of Space, 1958–1964
Chapter 5. Dress Rehearsals, 1964–1969
Chapter 6. Aerospace Dividends, 1969–1973
Chapter 7. International Ventures, 1973–1980
Chapter 8. Aircraft and Aerospace Craft, 1980–1989
Chapter 9. The Post-Challenger Years, 1989–1990's
Chapter 10. Toward Century 21
Chapter 11. Retrospect and Prospect
Notes on Reading
Chronology
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

This book speaks directly to a broad audience of aerospace history buffs, to the engineering establishment, and to the employees and former employees of NACA and NASA. It will also be of interest to scholars and students of aerospace engineering, the history of technology, and aerospace policy.
—Roger D. Launius, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution

Roger D. Launius

"This book speaks directly to a broad audience of aerospace history buffs, to the engineering establishment, and to the employees and former employees of NACA and NASA. It will also be of interest to scholars and students of aerospace engineering, the history of technology, and aerospace policy."

Editorial Reviews

No better introductory history of NACA and NASA exists.
—Choice

From the Publisher

No better introductory history of NACA and NASA exists.

Choice