Science and Exploration

Videos: NACA Symposium – Celebrating a 100 Years

By Marc Boucher
March 7, 2015
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Videos: NACA Symposium – Celebrating a 100 Years
NASA at 100 Symposium
NASA

On March 3, 1915, Congress created the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the organization from which NASA would be created from in 1958. To mark the 100 year anniversary the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum and the NASA History Program Office hosted a special symposium. Collected here are the presentations and panel discussions.
The NASA at 100

Welcoming and Keynote Address on the NACA Centenary: A Symposium on 100 Years of Aerospace

Welcoming Address – Trailblazing the Technical World of Aerodynamics: NACA Centenary Symposium

The second day welcoming address was made by Dr. John D. Anderson, Jr. – Curator at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

Panel Discussion – Setting the Stage – NACA Centenary: A Symposium on 100 Years of Aerospace

Moderator: NASA Chief Historian – William P. Barry, NASA Headquarters

– Flight Not Improbable: Octave Chanute tackles aeronautics as a civil engineer — Simine Short, National Soaring Museum

– False Start: The Langley Aerodynamical Laboratory, 1911-1915 — Tom D. Crouch, National Air and Space Museum

– The US Military and the Creation of the NACA — Laurence Burke, Carnegie Mellon University

Panel Discussion – Flight Test and Research: NACA Centenary A Symposium on 100 Years of Aerospace

Moderator: Richard P. Hallion, Florida Polytechnic University

– Conducting Research in Flight: A Unique NACA Contribution to Aerospace — Robert E. Curry, NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center, Retired

– The NACA, the Airplane Propeller, and World War II — Jeremy R. Kinney, National Air and Space Museum

– “The Real Right Stuff”: An Historical Examination of the Culture and Accomplishments of the NACA Research Pilot, 1917-1958 — James R. Hansen, Auburn University

– Flight Test to Moon Shot: The NACA, the Astronauts, and the Culture of Experiment, 1959-1969 — Matthew H. Hersch, University of Pennsylvania

Early History Panel

In a program moderated by Stephen Garber from NASA Headquarters, the program explored the early history of the NACA and includes the following presentations:

– Bringing Aerodynamics – and Aeronautical Engineering – to the American University; Presenter: Deborah G. Douglas, MIT Museum

– NACA, Naval Aviation and MIT: Establishing the Practice of Aeronautical Engineering; Presenter: John Tylko, MIT

– Transplanting Göttingen to the Tidewater: The NACA and German Aerodynamics, 1919-1926; Presenter: Richard P. Hallion, Florida Polytechnic University

– The War, the NACA and the Convention: Laying the Ideological Foundation for Federal Regulation during the Wilson Administration; Presenter: Sean Seyer, University of Kansas

Panel Discussion: Key-Aspects of NACA Research

Moderator: Michael J. Neufeld, National Air and Space Museum

– The NACA and Research Policy at the Hands of History — Robert Ferguson, Independent Researcher

– Epochs of Space Technology at NASA: NACA to OART and Beyond — John C. Mankins, Artemis Innovation Management Solutions, LLC

– Women of NACA: STEM Stories to Inspire Future Generations — Adrienne Provenzano, STEAM Educator

– The NACA at Lewis Laboratory, a Legacy of Ohioans Solving the Problem of Flight — Shannon Bohle, Archivopedia, LLC

This What’s New in Aerospace?

– The NACA Transition to Space: Validating the Blunt Body; Presenter: Glenn Bugos, NASA Ames Research Center

– Reaction Control Systems and the NACA; Presenter: Christian Gelzer, NASA Armstrong Research Center

– Tin Soldiers and Glass Slippers: How Postwar Competition Sailplane Development Shifted from America to Europe; Presenter: Russell Lee, National Air and Space Museum

– Towards Victory: NACA Public Relations on the Coattails of the Cold War, 1946-1958; Presenter: Kristen Starr, Auburn University

This What’s New in Aerospace? (Panel 2)

In a special What’s New in Aerospace? program, moderated by National Air and Space Museum chief curator Peter Jakab, a presentation was given and featured a panel discussion with Mark Lewis from the Institute for Defense Analyses’s Science and Technology Policy Institute, Michael Gorn from the National Air and Space Museum, Janet Bednarek from the University of Dayton, and Peter Westwick from the University of Southern California.

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