national advisory committee for aeronautics

A very good site,and my dear PaulMM spoke about it before, https://whatisnuclear.com/the-story-of-the-atomic-airplane.html https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/aircraft-nuclear-propulsion-program-manned-aircraft-progress-report-1956-1958-video.45325/

Years ago, when NASA started sharing its archives online, I spent a lot of time indexing the photos of the various models tested in wind tunnels. I only saved a few of them, thinking that the images were online to stay... only to discover later on that none of the links I had saved to the...

Bell L-39 On March 17, 1947, the U.S. Navy cancelled the contract of the STOL flying saucer Chance Vought XF5U-1. The year 1947 was incredibly special. Just five days before the cancellation of the program, the doctrine to contain the Soviet expansion was announced to Congress by President...

The successor to the X-15 was - a winged satellite? In the mid-1950s, NACA was pushing the boundaries of hypersonic flight. After the X-15, the Air Force's Project HYWARDS aimed to design a Mach 12 successor. Visionary engineer John Becker at NACA Langley proposed an even more ambitious goal: a...

In 1942 NACA made a reasearch about extending the range of the AAF bombers using tank wing trailers and gliders. Here the figures of the proposals, taken form the following report.

The July 1946 issue of Air Trails magazine has an article on large-scale flying models used for aerodynamic research. There are several images of a four-engine flying boat -- obviously if CVAC went to the expense of doing this, then it expected to build something. The legend on the nose reads...

Hi, http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/b181235.pdf

Artist's impression of unmanned Martian reconnaissance vehicle concept press photo found on eBay. Source: http://www.ebay.com/itm/1958-Boeing-Minute-Man-Missile-Martian-Reconnaissance-vehicle-Press-Photo-/190706754178?pt=Art_Photo_Images&hash=item2c67022282

While researching some Martin aircraft, I came across this most unusual picture. Why unusual? 1°) It depicts a Martin Model 187 in U.S. marking. The "Baltimore", as the British called it, was never procured by the U.S. for their own purposes and the planned XA-23 prototype was cancelled before...

Projects from TsAGI album, dated 1947 Who can identify them?

A new post is up at RetroMechanix.com reproducing several early postwar reports on convertible aircraft (vehicles which can function either as a direct lift, rotary aircraft or as fixed wing airplane, with conversion from one to the other type as required) found in NACA files at the National...

I found this online - a view of the D-558-2 I've never seen before (note original cockpit canopy). Credit Life magazine - Steve Pace

Convair XP-92 first configuration

Hi all, there is a drawing of Douglas X-planes. I believe the D.558-III "Skyflash" is the Douglas D.684? Servus Maveric

Hi, We can speak about NASA projects which was never built. During the end of 1970s,NASA had launched a program for Energy Efficient Aircraft, a joint NASA/US industry research and development project to reduce by 50 per cent the fuel consumption of future generation civil transport...

The AP-76 was one of the neatest-looking of the X-15 contenders... and also the poorest performer of the bunch. Looks ain't everything. BLATANT COMMERCIALISM WARNING.... Along with the AP-76, I just added a slew of new items. The AP-76 report is a prime example of how a design *should* be...