Launching the Future of Flight: Aeronautics

In 1947, the American rocket-powered X-1 experimental aircraft broke the sound barrier. X-1 team members from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the NACA, founded the High-Speed Flight Research Station west of the Mojave Desert, which became NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center. Armstrong has been home to the design and testing of experimental aircraft since the sound barrier was broken.

What is said in the film

Above the deserts of Southern California in 1947, the American rocket powered X-1 experimental aircraft broke the sound barrier. It signaled the future of aviation and opened a new chapter in the history of flight. An important part of the X-1 team came from the NACA's Langley Aeronautical Laboratory in Virginia. This group of research engineers and test pilots founded the NACA's High-Speed Flight Research Station west of the Mojave Desert, which became NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center. Armstrong has been home to the design and testing of experimental aircraft since the sound barrier was broken.

Whether taking the X-15 to the edge of space, or testing the concepts that allowed the space shuttle to land back on Earth, going to space and returning has always required flight testing in the atmosphere. The NACA's legacy lives on today at NASA's research centers. After more than 100 years since its establishment in 1915, the NACA's creativity and pursuit of the fundamental challenges of flight in the skies above and the space beyond, remind us, that the first “A” in NASA is aeronautics.

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