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Centennial of Flight:
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The Biplanes1903 - 19 |
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Wright Flyer |
First powered aircraft |
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Glen Curtis Pusher |
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The Monoplanes
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YB-9 |
This plane's design included many National Advisory Committee on Aviation, NACA, (NACA was the predecessor of NASA.) innovations. These include the NACA Cowl that enclosed the engine. This plane was a large bomber that was very fast. |
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Ford/Stout Tri motor |
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The Spirit of Saint Louis |
This plane piloted by Charles Lindbergh made the first solo transatlantic flight. It's design incorporated propeller research done at NACA Langley. |
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The Modern Propeller Planes
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| Boeing 247 |
The significance of this plane is that most of what we consider to be modern features are brought together in this one design (Up entail then, these features existed on different airplanes.) : Cantilever wings, retractable landing gear, NACA engine cowlings (reduce drag), controllable pitch propellers, engine superchargers, all-metal stressed-skin construction, and flush rivets. |
| Lockheed Constellation | This plane was the last of the big engine airliners. Amelia Earhart's plane. |
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The Warplanes
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| B24 | |
| P51 H | The innovations were: A thrust recovery radiator that minimized drag and NACA laminar flow airfoils. |
| P61 | Black Widow night flyer, WWII, includes the development of modern high lift system, fowler-flaps over much of span, spoilers used for flight path and roll control, short ailerons. |
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The Jets
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| B47 | 1st major swept American wing |
| F86 | NACA Ames research, swept wing |
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The Quest for Speed1947 - 1970 |
| X-1 | Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier in this plane. |
| X-2 | The Bell X-2 rocket plane sets an altitude record at over 126,000 feet. |
| Skyrocket D558 | The first aircraft to break Mach 2, or twice the speed of sound. |
| X-15 | All time altitude record of 354,000 feet.and record speed of Mach 6.7 |
| Concorde | High lift geometry |
| SR 71 | High temperature skin, metallic hot structure, ejector nozzles, variable conical inlets, actively cooled ,geometry |
| XB-70 | Mach 3 bomber developed in NASA wind tunnels, uses compression lift, Variable geometry. |
Vertical Lift Research
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| Convair Pogo | Delta wing, tail sitter |
| X14 | Vertical Short Take Off and Landing,VSTOL, (deflecting nozzles) |
| XV - 15 | Tiltrotor NASA innovation in rotor control for stability and control |
| LEM Trainer | |
| X-15 | All time altitude record of 354,000 feet.and record speed of Mach 6.7 |
| AV 8B | Vertical lift |
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The Modern Military Jets
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F111 |
Variable sweep wing, inertial navigation system, terrain-following |
| F14 | Variable geometry |
| AFTI F16 | F-16 light weight fighter |
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Continued Flight Research 1975 - Present |
| Kuiper Airborne Observatory | NASA carries infrared telescope above much of the Earth's atmosphere |
| Hi Mat | Highly maneuverable aircraft technology. Remotely piloted. |
| ER2 | High altitude atmospheric research |
| X29 | High angle of attack composite aeroelastic structure, forward swept wing |
| F-8 | Digital flyby wire. |
| Pathfinder | Solar powered |
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The Lifting Bodies
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| M2-F2 | Direct result of NASA research into lifting reentry and ability to land a reentry vehicle rather than recover in ocean with parachute |
| X24B | Entry Vehicle with landing gear (first to land on paved runway) |
| Shuttle Orbiter | Mach 25. |
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