View source for Organization:National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics

{{short description|U.S. federal agency; predecessor to NASA}}
{{Infobox government agency
|agency_name     = National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
|logo            = US NACA logo.svg
|logo_caption    = Logo
|seal            = NACA seal (cropped).png
|seal_width      = 140px
|seal_caption    = The official seal of NACA, depicting the ''[[Engineering:Wright Flyer|Wright Flyer]]'' and the [[Biography:Wright brothers|Wright brothers]]' first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina
|formed          = {{start date and age|1915|03|03|mf=y}}
|date1           =
|date1_name      =
|date2           =
|date2_name      =
|preceding1      =
|preceding2      =
|dissolved       = {{end date and age|1958|10|01|mf=y}}
|superseding     = [[Organization:NASA|NASA]]
|jurisdiction    = Federal government of the United States
|headquarters    =
|employees       =
|budget          =
|child2_agency   =
|website         =
|footnotes       =
}}

The '''National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics''' ('''NACA''') was a United States federal agency founded on March 3, 1915, to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research.<ref>{{Cite web |title=NACA Overview |url=https://history.nasa.gov/naca/overview.html |access-date=2022-04-20 |website=history.nasa.gov}}</ref> On October 1, 1958, the agency was dissolved and its assets and personnel were transferred to the newly created [[Organization:NASA|National Aeronautics and Space Administration]] (NASA). NACA is an initialism, i.e., pronounced as individual letters, rather than as a whole word<ref>Murray, Charles, and Catherine Bly Cox. ''Apollo''. South Mountain Books, 2004, p. xiii.</ref> (as was NASA during the early years after being established).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic4G-8qX_bk&t=18s|title=Creation of NASA: Message to Employees of NACA from T. Keith Glennan 1958 NASA|last=Jeff Quitney|date=May 17, 2013|access-date=May 8, 2018|via=YouTube|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161122234222/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic4G-8qX_bk&t=18s|archive-date=November 22, 2016|df=mdy-all}}</ref>

Among other advancements, NACA [[Research and development|research and development]] produced the [[Physics:NACA duct|NACA duct]], a type of air intake used in modern automotive applications, the [[Physics:NACA cowling|NACA cowling]], and several series of [[Physics:NACA airfoil|NACA airfoil]]s,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Abbot |first=Ira H |title=Summary of airfoil data NACA report 824 |url=https://engineering.purdue.edu/~aerodyn/AAE514/Spring%202011/naca-report-824.pdf |access-date=20 Apr 2022 |website=engineering.purdue.edu/}}</ref> which are still used in aircraft manufacturing.

During World War II, NACA was described as "The Force Behind Our Air Supremacy" due to its key role in producing working superchargers for high altitude bombers, and for producing the laminar wing profiles for the [[Engineering:North American P-51 Mustang|North American P-51 Mustang]].<ref name="nasa.gov">{{cite web|url=https://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/news/factsheets/WWII.html|title=NASA - WWII & NACA: US Aviation Research Helped Speed Victory|website=www.nasa.gov|access-date=May 8, 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171218214131/https://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/news/factsheets/WWII.html|archive-date=December 18, 2017|df=mdy-all}}</ref> NACA also helped in developing the [[Physics:Area rule|area rule]] that is used on all modern [[Engineering:Supersonic aircraft|supersonic aircraft]], and conducted the key compressibility research that enabled the [[Engineering:Bell X-1|Bell X-1]] to break the sound barrier.

==Origins==
[[File:NACA credo.jpg|thumb|upright|left|The inscription on the wall is NACA's mission statement: "...It shall be the duty of the advisory committee for aeronautics to supervise and direct the scientific study of the problems of flight with a view to their practical solution ..." By an Act of Congress Approved March 3, 1915]]

NACA was established on March 13, 1915, by the federal government through enabling legislation as an emergency measure during [[Social:World War I|World War I]] to promote industry, academic, and government coordination on war-related projects. It was modeled on similar national agencies found in Europe: the French ''L'Etablissement Central de l'Aérostation Militaire'' in Meudon (now ''Office National d'Etudes et de Recherches Aerospatiales''), the German Aerodynamic Laboratory of the University of Göttingen, and the Russian Aerodynamic Institute of Koutchino (replaced in 1918 with the [[Organization:Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute|Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI)]], which is still in existence). The most influential agency upon which the NACA was based was the British [[Organization:Advisory Committee for Aeronautics|Advisory Committee for Aeronautics]].

In December 1912, President William Howard Taft had appointed a National Aerodynamical Laboratory Commission chaired by Robert S. Woodward, president of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Legislation was introduced in both houses of Congress early in January 1913 to approve the commission, but when it came to a vote, the legislation was defeated.

[[File:First Meeting of the NACA 1915 - GPN-2000-001571.jpg|thumb|200px|The first meeting of the NACA in 1915]]
Charles D. Walcott, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution from 1907 to 1927, took up the effort, and in January 1915, Senator Benjamin R. Tillman, and Representative Ernest W. Roberts introduced identical resolutions recommending the creation of an advisory committee as outlined by Walcott. The purpose of the committee was "to supervise and direct the scientific study of the problems of flight with a view to their practical solution, and to determine the problems which should be experimentally attacked and to discuss their solution and their application to practical questions". Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote that he "heartily [endorsed] the principle" on which the legislation was based. Walcott suggested the tactic of adding the resolution to the Naval Appropriations Bill.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4103/ch1.htm |title=Model Research - Volume 1 |last=Roland |first=Alex |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041113150609/https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4103/ch1.htm|archive-date=2004-11-13}}</ref>

According to one source, "The enabling legislation for the NACA slipped through almost unnoticed as a rider attached to the Naval Appropriation Bill, on March 3, 1915."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4406/chap1.html |title=Orders of Magnitude, Chapter 1 |last=Bilstein |first=Roger E. |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070114221127/http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4406/chap1.html |archive-date=January 14, 2007 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> The committee of 12 people, all unpaid, were allocated a budget of $5,000 per year.

President [[Biography:Woodrow Wilson|Woodrow Wilson]] signed it into law the same day, thus formally creating the Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, as it was called in the legislation, on the last day of the 63rd Congress.

The act of Congress creating NACA, approved March 3, 1915, reads, "...It shall be the duty of the advisory committee for aeronautics to supervise and direct the scientific study of the problems of flight with a view to their practical solution. ... "<ref>{{cite web |url=https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4306/contents.htm |title=Engines and Innovation |last=Dawson |first=Virginia P. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041031021516/https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4306/contents.htm|archive-date=2004-10-31}}</ref>

==Research==
[[File:The NACA Test Force - GPN-2000-000083.jpg|thumb|The NACA Test Force at the High-Speed Flight Station in Edwards, California. The white aircraft in the foreground is a Douglas Skyrocket.]]

On January 29, 1920, President Wilson appointed pioneering flier and aviation engineer Orville Wright to NACA's board. By the early 1920s, it had adopted a new and more ambitious mission: to promote military and civilian aviation through applied research that looked beyond current needs. NACA researchers pursued this mission through the agency's impressive collection of in-house wind tunnels, engine test stands, and flight test facilities. Commercial and military clients were also permitted to use NACA facilities on a contract basis.

;Facilities
*Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory (Hampton, Virginia)
*Ames Aeronautical Laboratory (Moffett Field)
*Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory (Lewis Research Center)
*Muroc Flight Test Unit ([[Organization:Edwards Air Force Base|Edwards Air Force Base]])

In 1922, NACA had 100 employees. By 1938, it had 426. In addition to formal assignments, staff were encouraged to pursue unauthorized "bootleg" research, provided that it was not too exotic. The result was a long string of fundamental breakthroughs, including "thin airfoil theory" (1920s), "[[Physics:NACA cowling|NACA engine cowl]]" (1930s), the "[[Physics:NACA airfoil|NACA airfoil]]" series (1940s), and the "[[Physics:Area rule|area rule]]" for supersonic aircraft (1950s). On the other hand, NACA's 1941 refusal to increase airspeed in their wind tunnels set [[Company:Lockheed Corporation|Lockheed]] back a year in their quest to solve the problem of [[Physics:Compressibility|compressibility]] encountered in high speed dives made by the [[Engineering:Lockheed P-38 Lightning|Lockheed P-38 Lightning]].<ref>Bodie, Warren M. ''The Lockheed P-38 Lightning: The Definitive Story of Lockheed's P-38 Fighter''. Hayesville, North Carolina: Widewing Publications, 2001, 1991, pp. 174–5. {{ISBN|0-9629359-5-6}}.</ref>

[[File:Model in Supersonic Wind Tunnel GPN-2000-001631.jpg|thumb|An engineer makes final calibrations to a model mounted in the {{convert|6|x|6|ft|adj=on}} supersonic wind tunnel.]]
The full-size {{convert|30|x|60|ft|adj=on}} Langley wind tunnel operated at no more than {{convert|100|mph|kn km/h|abbr=on}} and the then-recent {{convert|7|x|10|ft|adj=on}} tunnels at Moffett could only reach {{convert|250|mph|kn km/h|abbr=on}}. These were speeds Lockheed engineers considered useless for their purposes. General Henry H. Arnold took up the matter and overruled NACA objections to higher air speeds. NACA built a handful of new high-speed wind tunnels, and Mach 0.75 ({{convert|570|mph|kn km/h|0|abbr=on}}) was reached at Moffett's {{convert|16|ft|adj=on}} wind tunnel late in 1942.<ref>Bodie, Warren M. ''The Lockheed P-38 Lightning''. pp. 75-6.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-440/ch3-5.htm|title=ch3-5|website=www.hq.nasa.gov|access-date=May 8, 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160914061156/http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-440/ch3-5.htm|archive-date=September 14, 2016|df=mdy-all}}</ref>

===Wind tunnels===
[[File:National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics wind tests (1946).webm|thumb|NACA wind test on a human subject (1946)]]
{{Further|Engineering:Subsonic and transonic wind tunnel}}

NACA's first [[Physics:Wind tunnel|wind tunnel]] was formally dedicated at Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory on June 11, 1920.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nasa.gov/the-nacas-first-wind-tunnel |title=The NACA's First Wind Tunnel |last1=Joskow |first1=Melissa |last2=Dennis |first2=Warren |publisher=National Aeronautics and Space Administration |date=10 June 2015 |website=NASA History |access-date=8 July 2021}}</ref> It was the first of many now-famous NACA and NASA wind tunnels. Although this specific wind tunnel was not unique or advanced, it enabled NACA engineers and scientists to develop and test new and advanced concepts in [[Physics:Aerodynamics|aerodynamics]] and to improve future wind tunnel design.

#Atmospheric 5-ft wind tunnel (1920)
#[[Organization:Variable Density Tunnel|Variable Density Tunnel]] (1922)
#[[Organization:Propeller Research Tunnel|Propeller Research Tunnel]] (1927)
#High-speed 11-in wind tunnel (1928)
#Vertical 5-ft wind tunnel (1929)
#Atmospheric 7- by 10-ft wind tunnel (1930)
#Full-scale 30- by 60-ft tunnel (1931)

==Influence on World War II technology==
In the years immediately preceding World War II, NACA was involved in the development of several designs that served key roles in the war effort. When engineers at a major engine manufacturer were having issues producing [[Engineering:Supercharger|supercharger]]s that would allow the [[Engineering:Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress|Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress]] to maintain power at high altitude, a team of engineers from NACA solved the problems and created the standards and testing methods used to produce effective superchargers in the future. This enabled the B-17 to be used as a key aircraft in the war effort. The designs and information gained from NACA research on the B-17 were used in nearly every major U.S. military powerplant of the Second World War. Nearly every aircraft used some form of forced induction that relied on information developed by NACA. Because of this, U.S.-produced aircraft had a significant power advantage above 15,000 feet, which was never fully countered by Axis forces.{{citation needed|date=July 2015}}<!--true, but needs citations...-->

After the war had begun, the British government sent a request to [[Company:North American Aviation|North American Aviation]] for a new fighter. The offered [[Engineering:Curtiss P-40 Warhawk|P-40 Tomahawk]] fighters were considered too outdated to be a feasible front line fighter by European standards, and so North American began development of a new aircraft. The British government chose a NACA-developed airfoil for the fighter, which enabled it to perform dramatically better than previous models. This aircraft became known as the [[Engineering:North American P-51 Mustang|P-51 Mustang]].<ref name="nasa.gov"/>

==Supersonic research==
[[File:Bell X-1 color.jpg|thumb|The NACA XS-1 (Bell X-1)]]
[[File:NACA-Ames-1958.jpg|thumb|The NACA Scientific and Engineering Staff at the [[Organization:Ames Research Center|Ames Research Center]] in Mountain View California shortly before the dissolution of NACA and the formation of NASA in 1958.]]
After early experiments by Opel RAK with rocket propulsion leading to the first public flight of a rocket plane, the [[Engineering:Opel RAK.1|Opel RAK.1]], in 1929 and eventual military programs at Heinkel and Messerschmitt by Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, the US entered the race to supersonic planes and spaceflight in the 1940s. Although the [[Engineering:Bell X-1|Bell X-1]] was commissioned by the Air Force and flown by Air Force test pilot Chuck Yeager, when it exceeded [[Physics:Speed of sound|Mach 1]] NACA was officially in charge of the testing and development of the aircraft.<ref>https://www.nasa.gov/feature/95-years-ago-first-human-rocket-powered-aircraft-flight |title=95 years ago: First Human Rocket-Powered Aircraft Flight|author=John Uri |date=June 12, 2023 |accessdate=June 21, 2023 |publisher=NASA</ref> NACA ran the experiments and data collection, and the bulk of the research used to develop the aircraft came from NACA engineer John Stack, the head of NACA's  compressibility division.<ref name="nasa.gov"/> Compressibility is a major issue as aircraft approach Mach 1, and research into solving the problem drew heavily on information collected during previous NACA wind tunnel testing to assist Lockheed with the P-38 Lightning.

The X-1 program was first envisioned in 1944 when a former NACA engineer working for Bell Aircraft<!--who?--> approached the Army for funding of a supersonic test aircraft. Neither the Army nor Bell had any experience in this area, so the majority of research came from the NACA Compressibility Research Division, which had been operating for more than a year by the time Bell began conceptual designs. The Compressibility Research Division also had years of additional research and data to pull from, as its head engineer <!--who? Stack?--> was previously head of the high speed wind tunnel division, which itself had nearly a decade of high speed test data by that time. Due to the importance of NACA involvement, Stack was personally awarded the Collier Trophy along with the owner of Bell Aircraft and test pilot Chuck Yeager.<ref>From Engineering Science to Big Science: The NACA and NASA Collier Trophy Research Project Winners, 1998, P.89</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Dryden Flight Research Center historical data |work=NASA |url=http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/about/Dryden/40.html |access-date=2006-12-10 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061013060339/http://www1.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/about/Dryden/40.html |archive-date=October 13, 2006 |df=mdy-all }}</ref>

In 1951, NACA Engineer [[Biography:Richard T. Whitcomb|Richard Whitcomb]] determined the [[Physics:Area rule|area rule]] that explained [[Physics:Transonic|transonic]] flow over an aircraft. The first uses of this theory were on the Convair F-102 project and the F11F Tiger. The F-102 was meant to be a supersonic interceptor, but it was unable to exceed the speed of sound, despite the best effort of Convair engineers. The F-102 had actually already begun production when this was discovered, so NACA engineers were sent to quickly solve the problem at hand. The production line had to be modified to allow the modification of F-102s already in production to allow them to use the area rule. (Aircraft so altered were known as "area ruled" aircraft.) The design changes allowed the aircraft to exceed Mach 1, but only by a small margin, as the rest of the Convair design was not optimized for this. As the F-11F was the first design to incorporate this during initial design, it was able to break the sound barrier without having to use afterburner.<ref>From Engineering Science to Big Science: The NACA and NASA Collier Trophy Research Project Winners, 1998, p. 146.</ref>

Because the area rule was initially classified, it took several years for Whitcomb to be recognized for his accomplishment. In 1955 he was awarded the Collier Trophy for his work on both the Tiger and the F-102.<ref>From Engineering Science to Big Science: The NACA and NASA Collier Trophy P.147</ref>

The most important design resulting from the area rule was the B-58 Hustler, which was already in development at the time. It was redesigned to take the area rule into effect, allowing greatly improved performance.<ref>From Engineering Science to Big Science: The NACA and NASA Collier Trophy Research Project Winners, 1998, P.147</ref> This was the first US supersonic bomber, and was capable of Mach 2 at a time when Soviet fighters had only just attained that speed months earlier.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wvi.com/~sr71webmaster/b58.htm|title=B-58 Hustler Records & 15,000 miles non-stop in the SR-71|first=Leland R|last=Haynes|website=www.wvi.com|access-date=May 8, 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171102022453/http://www.wvi.com/~sr71webmaster/b58.htm|archive-date=November 2, 2017|df=mdy-all}}</ref>  The area rule concept is now used in designing all transonic and supersonic aircraft.

NACA experience provided a model for [[Social:World War II|World War II]] research, the postwar government laboratories, and NACA's successor, the [[Organization:NASA|National Aeronautics and Space Administration]] (NASA).

NACA also participated in development of the first aircraft to fly to the "edge of space", North American's [[Engineering:North American X-15|X-15]]. NACA airfoils are still used on modern aircraft.

==Chairmen==
{| class="wikitable" style="clear:right; text-align:center"
|-
!{{Abbr|No.|Number}}
!Portrait
!Name
!Term
!colspan="2"|President<br />{{small|serving under}}
|-
| 1
| [[Image:Brigadier General George P. Scriven US Army in full dress uniform.jpg|100px|George P. Scriven]]
| Brig. Gen. George P. Scriven<br />{{small|(United States Army)}}
| 1915–1916
| rowspan=4 style="background: {{party color|Democratic Party (United States)}};" |
| rowspan=4 |[[Biography:Woodrow Wilson|Woodrow Wilson]]
|-
| 2
| [[Image:William Durand.jpg|100px|William F. Durand]]
| William F. Durand<br />{{small|([[Organization:Stanford University|Stanford University]])}}
| 1916–1918
|-
| 3
| [[Image:Cassier's magazine (1904) (14582235378).jpg|100px|John R. Freeman]]
| John R. Freeman<br />{{small|(Consultant)}}
| 1918–1919
|-
| rowspan=3 | 4
| rowspan=3 | [[Image:Charles Walcott.jpg|100px|Charles Doolittle Walcott]]
| rowspan=3 | Charles Doolittle Walcott<br />{{small|(Smithsonian Institution)}}
| rowspan=3 | 1920–1927 
|-
| rowspan=1 style="background: {{party color|Republican Party (United States)}};" |
| rowspan=1 |Warren G. Harding
|-
| rowspan=2 style="background: {{party color|Republican Party (United States)}};" |
| rowspan=2 |Calvin Coolidge
|-
| rowspan=3 | 5
| rowspan=3 | [[Image:Portrait of Joseph Sweetman Ames from Who's Who in American Aeronautics 1922.png|100px|Joseph Sweetman Ames]]
| rowspan=3 | Joseph Sweetman Ames<br />{{small|([[Organization:Johns Hopkins University|Johns Hopkins University]])}}
| rowspan=3 | 1927–1939
|-
| rowspan=1 style="background: {{party color|Republican Party (United States)}};" |
| rowspan=1 |Herbert Hoover
|-
| rowspan=3 style="background: {{party color|Democratic Party (United States)}};" |
| rowspan=3 |Franklin D. Roosevelt
|-
| 6
| [[Image:Vannevar Bush 1940 (crop).jpg|100px|Vannevar Bush]]
| [[Biography:Vannevar Bush|Vannevar Bush]]<br />{{small|(Carnegie Institution)}}
| 1940–1941
|-
| rowspan=3 | 7
| rowspan=3 | [[Image:Jerome Clarke Hunsaker (cropped).jpg|100px|Jerome C. Hunsaker]]
| rowspan=3 | Capt. Jerome C. Hunsaker<br />{{small|(Navy, MIT)}}
| rowspan=3 | 1941–1956
|-
| rowspan=1 style="background: {{party color|Democratic Party (United States)}};" |
| rowspan=1 |Harry S. Truman
|-
| rowspan=2 style="background: {{party color|Republican Party (United States)}};" |
| rowspan=2 |Dwight D. Eisenhower
|-
| 8
| [[Image:Lt. General James Doolittle, head and shoulders.jpg|100px|James H. Doolittle]]
| Lt. Gen. James H. Doolittle<br />{{small|(Shell Oil Company)}}
| 1957–1958
|}

==Transformation into NASA==
{{Main|Astronomy:Creation of NASA}}

===Special Committee on Space Technology===
[[File:NACA's Special Committee on Space Technology.jpg|thumb|upright=1|Special Committee on Space Technology in 1958: at right, Wernher von Braun; fourth from the left, Hendrik Wade Bode]]

On November 21, 1957, [[Biography:Hugh Latimer Dryden|Hugh Dryden]], NACA's director, established the Special Committee on Space Technology.<ref name=erickson>{{cite book |title=Into the Unknown Together - The DOD, NASA, and Early Spaceflight |last=Erickson |first=Mark |year=2005 |isbn=1-58566-140-6 |url=http://aupress.au.af.mil/Books/Erickson/erickson.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090920093817/http://aupress.au.af.mil/Books/Erickson/erickson.pdf |archive-date=September 20, 2009 |df=mdy-all }}</ref>  The committee, also called the Stever Committee after its chairman, [[Biography:Guyford Stever|Guyford Stever]], was a special steering committee that was formed with the mandate to coordinate various branches of the federal government, private companies as well as universities within the United States with NACA's objectives and also harness their expertise in order to develop a space program.<ref name="Special Committee on Space Technology">{{cite web|url=https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4306/ch8.htm|title=ch8|website=history.nasa.gov|access-date=May 8, 2018|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171225233202/https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4306/ch8.htm|archive-date=December 25, 2017|df=mdy-all}}</ref>

[[Biography:Wernher von Braun|Wernher von Braun]], technical director at the US Army's Ballistic Missile Agency would have a Jupiter C rocket ready to launch a satellite in 1956, only to have it delayed,<ref name="Schefter 1999 p. 18">{{cite book |last=Schefter |first=James |title=The race : the uncensored story of how America beat Russia to the moon |publisher=Doubleday |location=New York |year=1999 |isbn=9780385492539 |oclc=681285276 |page=[https://archive.org/details/raceuncensored00sche/page/18 18] |url=https://archive.org/details/raceuncensored00sche/page/18 |access-date=2019-06-09 }}</ref> and the Soviets would launch ''[[Engineering:Sputnik 1|Sputnik 1]]'' in October 1957.

On January 14, 1958, Dryden published "A National Research Program for Space Technology", which stated:<ref name = erickson />
{{blockquote|It is of great urgency and importance to our country both from consideration of our prestige as a nation as well as military necessity that this challenge ([[Engineering:Sputnik crisis|Sputnik]]) be met by an energetic program of research and development for the conquest of space. ... 
It is accordingly proposed that the scientific research be the responsibility of a national civilian agency working in close cooperation with the applied research and development groups required for weapon systems development by the military. The pattern to be followed is that already developed by the
NACA and the military services. ...

The NACA is capable, by rapid extension and expansion of its effort, of providing leadership in space technology.}}

On March 5, 1958, James Killian, who chaired the President's Science Advisory Committee, wrote a memorandum to the President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Titled, "Organization for Civil Space Programs", it encouraged the President to sanction the creation of NASA. He wrote that a civil space program should be based on a "strengthened and redesignated" NACA, indicating that NACA was a "going Federal research agency" with 7,500 employees and $300&nbsp;million worth of facilities, which could expand its research program "with a minimum of delay".<ref name = erickson />

====Members====
As of their meeting on May 26, 1958, committee members, starting clockwise from the left of the above picture:<ref name="Special Committee on Space Technology"/>

{| class="wikitable" style="width:80%;"
|-
!Committee member!!Title
|-
|Edward R. Sharp||Director of the [[Organization:Glenn Research Center|Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory]]
|-
|Colonel Norman C Appold ||Assistant to the Deputy Commander for Weapons Systems, Air Research and Development Command: {{wipe|US Air Force}}
|-
|Abraham Hyatt ||Research and Analysis Officer Bureau of Aeronautics, Department of the Navy
|-
|[[Biography:Hendrik Wade Bode|Hendrik Wade Bode]]||Director of Research Physical Sciences, Bell Telephone Laboratories
|-
| William Randolph Lovelace II||[[Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute|Lovelace 
 Foundation for Medication Education and Research]]
|-
|S. K Hoffman||general manager, Rocketdyne Division, [[Company:North American Aviation|North American Aviation]]
|-
|Milton U Clauser ||Director, Aeronautical Research Laboratory, The Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation
|-
|H. Julian Allen||Chief, High Speed Flight Research, NACA Ames
|-
|Robert R. Gilruth||Assistant Director, NACA Langley
|-
|J. R. Dempsey||Manager. [[Company:Convair|Convair-Astronautics]] (Division of [[Company:General Dynamics|General Dynamics]])
|-
|Carl B. Palmer||Secretary to Committee, NACA Headquarters
|-
|[[Biography:Guyford Stever|H. Guyford Stever]]||Chairman, Associate Dean of Engineering, [[Organization:Massachusetts Institute of Technology|Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]
|-
|[[Biography:Hugh Latimer Dryden|Hugh L. Dryden]]||(ex officio), director, NACA, Namesake of future Dryden Research Center
|-
|[[Biography:Dale R. Corson|Dale R. Corson]]||Department of Physics, [[Organization:Cornell University|Cornell University]]
|-
|[[Biography:Abe Silverstein|Abe Silverstein]]||Associate Director, NACA Lewis
|-
|[[Biography:Wernher von Braun|Wernher von Braun]]||Director, Development Operations Division, Army Ballistic Missile Agency
|}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*[http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4406/cover.html John Henry, et al. '' Orders of Magnitude: A History of the NACA and NASA, 1915-1990''].
*[https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4103 Alex Roland. ''Model Research: The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, 1915-1958.'']
*[https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4305 James Hansen. ''Engineer in Charge: A History of the Langley Aeronautical Laboratory, 1917-1958.'']
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070928044802/http://www.kentuckypress.com/viewbook.cfm?Category_ID=1&Group=60&ID=1004 Michael H. Gorn, ''Expanding the envelope – Flight Research at NACA and NASA.'']

==External links==
{{Commons|NACA}}
*[http://www.centennialofflight.net/essay/Evolution_of_Technology/NACA/Tech1.htm U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission: The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA)]
*The NASA Technical Reports Server provides access to a [https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?Ne=2&N=17&Ns=PublicationYear%7c0 collection] of 14,469 NACA documents dating from 1917.
*[http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/airfoils/q0041.shtml Aerospaceweb.org: Information on NACA airfoil series]
*[https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4219/Contents.html Nasa.gov: "From Engineering Science to Big Science" — The NACA and NASA Collier Trophy Research Project Winners], edited by Pamela E. Mack.

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