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When British engineer Frank Whittle
successfully designed the jet engine in 1942, NACA was blamed for
America’s failure to achieve the goal, along with swept wing and
supersonic aircraft designs.
America’s first supersonic plane, the Bell X-1, surged over the California desert in a streak of orange in 1949. Captain Chuck Yeager piloted the bullet shaped plane having nicknamed it "Glamorous Glennis" after his wife. The X-1’s mission was to investigate speed just below and above the speed of sound. Yeager reached a speed of about 700 miles per hour (Mach 1.06) at an altitude of 43,000 feet, proving that humans could fly safely beyond the speed of sound.
The 1930s and 40s saw a growth in new technologies inspired by the enormous military expansion prior to and during World War II. Much of NACA's work at this time was directly related to military aviation and with the end of the war came new divisions in the global political landscape. The threat posed by the new enemy, Soviet Communism, was defined by nuclear capabilities and intercontinental rockets.
The foundations of these rocket technologies were built upon German science. At the end of the Second World War, America captured rocket genius Wernher von Braun and many of his colleagues, and moved them to the US as part of Project Paper Clip. Dr. von Braun masterminded the terrifying wartime V-2 rockets. Making use of von Braun’s knowledge, NACA devoted more and more of its facilities, budget, and expertise to missile research in the mid- and late 1950s.
America’s first supersonic plane, the Bell X-1, surged over the California desert in a streak of orange in 1949. Captain Chuck Yeager piloted the bullet shaped plane having nicknamed it "Glamorous Glennis" after his wife. The X-1’s mission was to investigate speed just below and above the speed of sound. Yeager reached a speed of about 700 miles per hour (Mach 1.06) at an altitude of 43,000 feet, proving that humans could fly safely beyond the speed of sound.
The 1930s and 40s saw a growth in new technologies inspired by the enormous military expansion prior to and during World War II. Much of NACA's work at this time was directly related to military aviation and with the end of the war came new divisions in the global political landscape. The threat posed by the new enemy, Soviet Communism, was defined by nuclear capabilities and intercontinental rockets.
The foundations of these rocket technologies were built upon German science. At the end of the Second World War, America captured rocket genius Wernher von Braun and many of his colleagues, and moved them to the US as part of Project Paper Clip. Dr. von Braun masterminded the terrifying wartime V-2 rockets. Making use of von Braun’s knowledge, NACA devoted more and more of its facilities, budget, and expertise to missile research in the mid- and late 1950s.
