NACA celebrates its centennial

“Had we not started doing this work at the NACA before 1958, because we were curious, we would never have gotten to the Moon when we did.” – John W. “Jack” Boyd

 
Before NASA there was the NACA, or National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, established on March 3, 1915. Recognizing the need for military airpower as the first world war raged in Europe, the U.S. government assembled an advisory panel of only 12 people “to supervise and direct the scientific study of the problems of flight, with a view to their practical solutions”—all on a $5,000 budget. 
 
During the next 43 years, with a more broadened purpose, the work of NACA members impacted aircraft developed for wars, commercial travel and, ultimately, journeys beyond Earth’s atmosphere. Contributions of NACA aeronautical research included cowling to improve radial engine cooling and reduce drag; numerous wind tunnel innovations to refine aerodynamic testing; and, of course, the well-known NACA airfoils that demonstrated the properties of different wing shapes. 
 
In October 1957, work in aerodynamics and propulsion acquired a renewed sense of urgency when the Soviet government launched the Sputnik satellite into space. As focus shifted from dominance of Earth’s atmosphere to a global space race, the facilities of the NACA became the foundation for a new federal agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
 
Created in October 1958, the new agency assembled a Space Task Group at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, to focus on the challenges of manned spaceflight. In 1961, this group moved to a new home in Houston—establishing the Manned Spacecraft Center that today we know and love as Johnson Space Center.
 
The first-person experiences of many of the JSC team members who started their careers at the NACA—including Chris Kraft, Max Faget and others—can be found at the JSC Oral History Project website.
 
To read more about the impact the NACA had not just on JSC, but other NASA centers across the United States, click here.  To read interviews with NACA participants at other centers, go here.