NASA

Description (March 16, 1966) Commander Neil Armstrong (right) and pilot David R. Scott prepare to board the Gemini-Titan VIII. Gemini VIII successfully launched at 11:41 a.m. EST, March 16, 1966. The mission co More

(June 17, 1985) On June 17, 1985, Space Shuttle Discovery's STS-51 G mission launched on a Comsat deployment mission. It deployed three communication satellites. The mission lasted a little over seven days. ..I More

(November 9, 1951) The third X-1 (46-064), known as "Queenie," is mated to the EB-50A (46- 006) at Edwards AFB, California. Following a captive flight on November 9, 1951, both aircraft were destroyed by fire d More

On April 9, 1959, NASA introduced its first astronaut class, the Mercury 7. Front row, left to right: Walter M. Schirra, Jr., Donald K. "Deke" Slayton, John H. Glenn, Jr., and M. Scott Carpenter; back row, Alan More

(February 7, 1964) Multiple exposure of Rendezvous Docking Simulator. The Gemini spacecraft was supported in a gimbal system by an overhead crane and gantry arrangement which provided 6 degrees of freedom - rol More

(June 3, 1965) Astronaut Edward H. White II, pilot for NASA's Gemini IV mission is shown in the crew's ready room at Launch Complex 16, suited and ready to ride the van to Launch Complex 19 for insertion in the More

Astronaut James A. Lovell Jr., pilot for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Gemini-7 spaceflight, walks to the elevator at Pad 19 one hour and 40 minutes before launch of the spacecraft. Moments More

Eugene A. Cernan, Commander, Apollo 17 salutes the flag on the lunar surface during extravehicular activity (EVA) on NASA's final lunar landing mission. The Lunar Module "Challenger" is in the left background b More

(1977) The Space Shuttle prototype Enterprise flies free after being released from NASA's 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) over Rogers Dry Lakebed during the second of five free flights carried out at the Dry More

(July 8, 2011) Space Shuttle Atlantis' STS-135 mission launched from Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center on July 8, 2011. STS-135 was the last Space Shuttle mission. The crew of four delivered supplies to th More

Description: The X-15 #2 (56-6671) launches away from the B-52 mothership with its rocket engine ignited. The white patches near the middle of the ship are frost from the liquid oxygen used in the propulsion sy More

(November 30, 1968) The wingless lifting body aircraft sitting on Rogers Dry Lake at what is now NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California. From left to right are the X-24A, M2-F3 and the HL-10. More

(October 10, 1902) Historic photo of the Wright brothers' third test glider being launched at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, on October 10, 1902. Wilbur Wright is at the controls, Orville Wright is at left, More

Description: The first meeting of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in the Office of The Secretary Of War April 23, 1915. Brig. Gen. George P. Scriven was elected as the temporary Chairman More

Description: L90-4341: "The Langley Aerodrome, brainchild of a group led by Samuel Langley. Shortly after this photo was taken, the December 8, 1903, manned tests of the Aerodrome ended abruptly in failure, as More

(September 3, 1908) The Wright Flyer demonstrations at Fort Myer, Virginia on September 3, 1908. In January 1908 the Wright Brothers submitted a bid to the U.S. War Department to design a plane for $25,000. Thi More

This photo commemorates the first successful sustained powered flight by Orville Wright on December 17, 1903, in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. Orville was at the controls and his brother, Wilbur, was runnin More

Full Description: (c. 1903) Samuel Pierpont Langley (1834-1906) with chief mechanic and pilot, Charles M. Manly...Image # L-1990-04340

Description (December 17, 1903) On December 17, 1903, at 10:30am at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, this airplane arose for a few seconds to make the first powered, heavier-than-air controlled flight in history. Th More

(May 1, 1904) Wilbur and Orville Wright with the Flyer II at Huffman Prairie, outside of Dayton, Ohio, on May 1, 1904. ..The Wrights had a much more difficult time testing their aircraft at Huffman Prairie than More

The historical evolution of airfoil sections, 1908-1944. The last two shapes are low-drag sections designed to have laminar flow over 60 to 70 percent of chord on both the upper and lower surface...Image # : L-1990-04334

(October 24, 1911) This photograph of Orville Wright in his glider at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, was taken on October 24, 1911. His new glider broke all the previous gliding records by actually soaring and sta More

Description (March 29, 1929) Pearl I. Young, the NACA's first female professional, at work in the instrument research laboratory circa 1929. Photograph published in Winds of Change, 75th Anniversary NASA publi More

Description: (February 1928) James H. Doolittle, the NACA's last chairman, visited Langley in February 1928 in his Curtiss Racer, the plane in which he won the 1925 Schneider Trophy Race. Photograph published More

Description: In the spring of 1919, these two Curtiss JN-4H Jennies, which served as NACA 1 and NACA 3 (foreground), prepare to take off from Langley Field. Many of these early flights were done to collect basi More

Description (October 12, 1928) The NACA cowling as applied to a Curtiss AT-5A at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, October 1928...Center: LARC .Image # : L-03019

Description: Tom Carroll was a NACA research pilot and the SPAD was a French bi-plane fighter aircraft during WWI.

(1934) Fred Weick's homebuilt W-1A of 1934, one of the first aircraft to employ tricycle landing gear. Weick and a group of nine other Langley engineers built this small experimental airplane in their spare tim More

Description: (October 17, 1925) Clad in a fur lined leather flying suit with oxygen facepiece, NACA test pilot Paul King prepares to take to the air in a Vought VE-7...Center: LARC .Image # : L-01118

Description (January 16, 1936) Fairchild 22: This is one of the hardest aircraft to identify in Langley's past, as it appeared in numerous guises. Built as a standard Fairchild 22, the NACA changed the wing, th More

Dr. Robert H. Goddard tows his rocket to the launching tower behind a Model A Ford truck, 15 miles northwest of Roswell, New Mexico. 1930- 1932. Dr. Goddard has been recognized as the "Father of American Rocket More

Description (October 12, 1928) Army Curtiss Hawk with NACA cowling. This Curtiss AT-5A is equipped to test a NACA cowling, November 1928. It was the work done on the NACA cowling which brought Langley the Colli More

Description: (1928) Langley metal workers fabricated NACA cowlings for early test installations. Cowlings reduced drag and increased aircraft performance...Center: LARC.Image # : L-03412

Description: (1920) Goggles at the ready, this Langley test pilot and engineer conducted research business high above the ground. In the early years, the flight research team was usually made up of a test pilot More

Description (May 19, 1927) Wright WF3W-1 Apache: In its seaplane configuration, an NACA crew prepares the Wright XF3W-1 Apache for take off from the Little Back River. The Apache was used for engine and cowling More

(1928) Originally the Wright Apache had a propeller spinner over the hub and a metal jacket covering the crankcase and inner portions of its engine cylinders. An LMAL test pilot prepares to fly the Apache to hi More

Description (October 12, 1926) Boeing NB-1: Designed as a primary trainer for the U. S. Navy, the Boeing NB-1 was used by the NACA at Langley starting in October 1926. The float-quipped example used by the NACA More

(June 1, 1927) Fred E. Weick, head of the Propeller Research Tunnel section, 1925-1929, in rear cockpit. Charles Lindbergh in front. Tom Hamilton is standing. ..Center: LARC .Image # : L-1990-03736

(February 13, 1931) The Lockheed Y1C-12 was a U. S. Army procured example of the Lockheed Vega. The military used the craft as a high-speed transport. The most famous Vega built was Oklahoman Wiley Post's "Winn More

Description (April 25, 1932) Hartley Soule stands in front of this Fairchild 22 with a leading edge high lift device installed for flight testing. This was the first of three Fairchild 22s to be used by the NAC More

(May 22, 1921) Test section and balance for Atmospheric Wind Tunnel (AWT) #1. The 5 foot diameter circular test section and control room of NACA Tunnel No. 1. A Curtiss "Jenny" model can be seen mounted in the More

Description (June 22, 1921) Active aircraft biplane, NACA 29-38131, with model wing suspended during flight...Center: LARC .Image # : L-00130

Description: The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in session at Washington to discuss plans to place America foremost in the development of aviation. A report was heard from Dr. Ames, chairman of the More

(c. 1922) John F. Victory (1892-1974) was the NACA's first employee and the only executive secretary it ever had...Image # : L-1990-03731

(June 1, 1922) Workmen in the patternmakers' shop manufacture a wing skeleton for a Thomas-Morse MB-3 airplane for pressure distribution studies in flight, June 1922...Center: LARC .Image # : L-00184

Description (February 3, 1922) The Variable Density Tunnel arrives by rail from the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company. The Tunnel was installed at Langley...Center: LARC .Image # : L-1990-04352

Description (August 1, 1922) Hangar construction at Langley in 1922...Center: LARC .Image # : L-00339

Full Description: Dr. Robert H. Goddard at a blackboard at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1924. Goddard began teaching physics in 1914 at Clark and in 1923 was named the Director of the Physic More

Description: (April 10, 1929) President Herbert Hoover presents the Collier Trophy to Joseph Ames, chairman of the NACA in 1929. Three years later, as part of his plan to increase efficiency in government, Hoov More

Description (February 21, 1931) By August 1929, tests in the Variable Density Tunnel had derived the family of airfoils NACA 0006 through NACA 6721, shown here in cross-section. Published in James R. Hansen, En More

Description: (1929) Metal workers welding pipe pause for the camera in this 1929 view...Center: LARC .Image # : L-01136

Description: (November 16, 1940) Dr George W. Lewis, NACA Director of Aeronautical Research (1929-1947) first visit to Ames Lab: L-R; John Parsons, William Mc Avoy, Donald H. Wood, Dr. Lewis, S. J. DeFrance, Au More

Description: Construction of 5 Foot Vertical Wind Tunnel. The 5 Foot Vertical Wind Tunnel was built to study spinning characteristics of aircraft. It was an open throat tunnel capable of a maximum speed of 80 m More

Description (August 15, 1930) Installation of Careystone covering at the Full-Scale Tunnel (FST) facility. The corrugated concrete and asbestos panels (1/4 inch thick; 42 inches wide; 62 inches long) which were More

Hermann Potocnik (1892-1929), also known as Herman Noordung, was an engineer in the Austrian army. Noordung wrote Das Problem der Befahrung des Weltraums (The Problem of Space Travel:The Rocket Motor) (1929), a More

Description: (March 15, 1929) Left to right: Eastman Jacobs, Shorty Defoe, Malvern Powell, and Harold Turner. In this photo taken on March 15, 1929, a quartet of NACA staff conduct tests on airfoils in the Vari More

Description: (c. 1932) The Goddard Space Flight Center was named in honor of Dr. Robert Goddard, a pioneer in rocket development. Dr. Goddard received patents for a multi-stage rocket and liquid propellants in More

Full Description: Dr. Robert H. Goddard with his complete rocket with the double- acting engine in November 1925, following more than two years of pump development based on the idea of a separate pump for each More

Description: (June 1, 1926) Michael Max Munk served as the NACA's Chief of Aerodynamics at what is now Langley Research Center. During his time at the NACA, Munk made a number of contributions to the field of a More

May 16, 1932: The Boeing Model 15 - the Boeing PW-9 aircraft. It arrived at NACA Langley in January 1927 and was tested in the Full-Scale Tunnel which was demolished in 2010. In the background is the original h More

Description: (May 23, 1934) Eight of the twelve members of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics attending the 9th Annual Aircraft Engineering Research Conference posed for this photograph at Langley More

Dr. Joseph Sweetman Ames at his desk at the NACA headquarters. Dr. Ames was a founding member of NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics), appointed by President Woodrow Wilson in 1915. Ames took on N More

Description: (1927) Langley administrative office in. Note the blueprints on the table at right lower corner, and rubber stamp tree on the man's desk in left foreground...Image # : L-02204

Description (September 1, 1928) Drag can present a major problem for aircraft and many of Langley's early research was focused upon reducing aircraft drag. One method was to place a cowling or covering over the More

Description (July 12, 1932) The researcher is sitting above the exit cone of the 5-foot Vertical Wind Tunnel and is examining the new 6-component spinning balance. This balance was developed between 1930 and 19 More

Description (1928) Curtiss Hawk with NACA Cowling in 1928...Center: LARC .Image # : L-03018

Description (November 5, 1928) Group photo on steps of Langley Research Building in 1928. front row, left to right: E.A. Meyers, Elton Miller, Amelia Earhart, Henry Reid, and Lt. Col. Jacob W.S. Wuest. Back row More

Description: (1928) At work in the metal shop making engine cowlings. The cowlings smoothed airflow over the engine and reduced drag. This increased speed and fuel efficiency...Center: LARC .Image # : L-03332

(Unknown) Amelia Earhart standing in front of the Lockheed Electra in which she disappeared in July 1937. Born in Atchison, Kansas in 1897, Amelia Earhart did not begin flying until after her move to California More

Description (August 2, 1928) Vought O2U-1 Corsair: Suspended from the roof of the NACA's hangar at Langley Field, this Vought O2U-1 Corsair retains its float undercarriage, a contrast to other O2Us flown by the More

In June of 1930 this Curtiss Bleeker Helicopter was photographed on the tarmac in front of the Langley hangar. The first successful helicopters, however, appeared in Europe later in the decade. (Image # L-04608)

Henry Sachs, machinist, is shown with Dr. Robert H. Goddard's rocket used in the first flight at Roswell, New Mexico on December 30, 1930. The rocket attained an altitude of about 2,000 feet and speed of about More

Description (February 14, 1928) View of the interior of the exit cone of the Variable-Density Tunnel (VDT) during its brief period of operation as an open throat design. After the fire, the VDT section engineer More

Description: (October 11, 1939) Spin models under construction in the model shop of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics at Langley Field, Virginia in 1939. These models would be placed in the Spin T More

Description (June 18, 1930) In June of 1930 this Curtiss Bleeker Helicopter was photographed on the tarmac in front of the Langley hangar. The first successful helicopters, however, appeared in Europe later in More

(July 29, 1940) President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited Langley Field on July 29, 1940. View of President Roosevelt in a car inside a NACA hangar, two unidentified men stand behind the car, and the wing of a pl More

This is a view of the huge dirigible hangar with doors open at both ends at the NASA Ames Reserach Center, Moffett Field, California. Lockheed Missiles and Space Company under contract to the NASA-Marshall Spac More

Dr. Robert H. Goddard's tower and shelter at the Army artillery range at Camp Devens, in Ayer, Massachusetts in the winter of 1929-1930. Goddard originally began testing rockets on his aunt's farm in Auburn, Ma More

Description (January 11, 1930) Model of 5-Foot Vertical Wind Tunnel. Carl Wenzinger and Thomas Harris wrote in NACA TR 387: "The vertical open-throat wind tunnel of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronauti More

Full Description: This photograph from 1930 shows the 30 x 60 Foot Tunnel during construction. Smith J. de France, a NACA engineer, was in charge of the design team for the new tunnel. Planning involved the con More

Dr. Robert H. Goddard and a liquid oxygen-gasoline rocket in the frame from which it was fired on March 16, 1926, at Auburn, Massachusetts. From 1930 to 1941, Dr. Goddard made substantial progress in the develo More

Description: Construction of Hangar One at NAS Sunnyvale circa 1931 - 1934

Description (1931) The original NACA hangars, 1931. The aircraft parked to the right is the Fairchild owned by the NACA. Just outside the hangar door is a modified Ford Model A that was used to start aircraft More

(L-4933): The Full-Scale Tunnel, seen from across the Back River shortly before its opening in 1931. With no common items discernable in this photo, it is difficult to appreciate the tunnel’s enormous size.

Description: .Construction of Hangar One at NAS Sunnyvale circa 1931 - 1934..Photo ID#: AILS-A93-0074-23

This photograph shows the Wright Brothers Monument in the distance on Kill Devil Hill and the granite boulder that marks the place that the first take-off of the first airplane was made. On December 17, 1903, t More

A close-up of Dr. Robert H. Goddard's gyroscope and associated parts used in the stabilization of the rocket tested April 19, 1932, in New Mexico. The rocket was also painted to show whether revolution about it More

The Boeing P-26A fighter mounted in the 30 x 60 Full Scale Tunnel in 1934. Nicknamed the "Peashooter," it was the first Army fighter to be constructed entirely of metal and to employ the low-wing monoplane conf More

Fred Weick designed the W-1 with tricycle landing gear. It is shown here in the Full Scale Tunnel in March 1934.

Col. Charles A. Lindbergh took this picture of Dr. Robert H. Goddard's rocket looking down the launching tower on September 23, 1935 in Roswell, New Mexico. In 1935 Goddard launched the A-series of tests on roc More

Description (July 25, 1939) Sikorsky XPBS-1: The Sikorsky XPBS-1 was a large four-engined flying boat ordered by the Navy in 1935. Although never ordered into production, the NACA evaluated the craft in 1938. M More

(1937) After a brief stint in the printing business, Orville and Wilbur Wright decided to open a bicycle shop together. After initially only selling and repairing bicycles in Dayton, Ohio, the Wright brothers b More

Description: (October 20, 1938) At this meeting Dr. Joesph S. Ames, President Emeritus of John Hopkins University, was re-elected Chairman, and Dr. Vannevar Bush, President- elect of the Carnegie Institution of More

Description: .12-Foot Free-Flight Tunnel under construction: The free-flight wind tunnel is a steel sphere 60 feet in diameter and can be supplied with air compressed up to two or more atmospheres in which the More

Description: The 12 Foot Free-Flight Wind Tunnel is a steel sphere 60 feet in diameter and can be supplied with air compressed up to two or more atmospheres in which the operators will work. A decompression cha More

Description: (March 10, 1943) Engineers operate the controls of the Stability Tunnel. Plans for a new tunnel to study stability problems began in the late thirties. The Stability Tunnel was authorized in 1939 a More

(1945) This World War II photograph shows future Astronaut Donald Deke K. Slayton (on right) and 1st Lt. Ed Steinman (on left) beside a Douglas A-26 bomber in the Pacific Theater of Operations during the summer More

Description: (November 9, 1944) General Henry Harley "Hap" Arnold visits the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory, National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, Cleveland, Ohio, now known as John H. Glenn Researc More

Description This views in the 7- by 10-foot test sections show a Douglas XSB2D-1 model set up for testing. The struts supporting the Douglas XSB2D-1 are mounted on a 6-component balance below the floor. NACA a More

Description(March 19, 1940) NACA Ames Personnel: Front Row; John Parsons, Manie Poole, Edward Sharp, Back Row; Carlson Bioletti, Ferril Nickle, Arthur Freeman, R J Clark..Raw Image # : M-285