Launching the Future of Flight: Engines

Twenty years before rockets carried the first humans out of our atmosphere, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the NACA, built a laboratory dedicated to aircraft propulsion. Built in 1941 in Cleveland, the lab became NASA’s Glenn Research Center. From testing some of the nation’s first jet engines and building innovative facilities, the lab has and applied its expertise to space since the founding of NASA.

What is said in the film

To get off the ground you need an engine. 20 years before rockets carried the first humans out of our atmosphere, the NACA built a laboratory dedicated to aircraft propulsion. Construction began in 1941, in Cleveland and became what we know today as NASA's Glenn Research Center. The focus on piston engine performance during the war evolved into testing some of the nation's first jet engines, improving turbojet and ramjet designs in the 1940s and 50s. Researchers at the lab advanced aviation safety, expanded the NACA's award winning icing research, and developed crash fire prevention and passenger restraints.

In the Atomic age, it was in Ohio that the NACA investigated nuclear propulsion systems for aircraft and rockets. Beginning in 1958, the lab applied its aeronautics expertise to space. High-energy propellant research led to NASA using liquid hydrogen in most upper stage rockets, and the space shuttle. Investigations continued into cryogenic propellant handling and microgravity research. In 1962, the center became responsible for the Centaur rocket program, that sent the surveyor spacecraft to the moon, launched probes to the outer planets, and placed scores of satellites into orbit.

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