[1]. Warren E. Leary, “NASA Jet Sets Record For Speed,” New York Times, Nov. 17, 2004, p. A24.
[2]. Donald D. Baals and William R. Corliss, Wind Tunnels of NASA, NASA SP-440 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1981), p. 2.
[3]. NASA Ames Applied Aerodynamics Branch, “The Unitary Plan Wind Tunnels” (July 1994), pp. 10–11.
[4]. For a detailed history of wind tunnel development before World War II, see J. Lawrence Lee, “Into the Wind: A History of the American Wind Tunnel, 1896–1941,” dissertation, Auburn University, 2001.
[5]. Baals and Corliss, Wind Tunnels of NASA, p. 3.
[6]. Ibid.
[7]. Peter Jakab, Visions of a Flying Machine (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990), p. 155.
[8]. Baals and Corliss, Wind Tunnels of NASA, pp. 9–12.
[9]. Ibid., pp. 13–15.
[10]. Ibid., pp. 15–17.
[11]. Eastman N. Jacobs, Kenneth E. Ward, and Robert M. Pinkerton, “The Characteristics of 78 Related Airfoil Sections from Tests in the Variable-Density Wind Tunnel,” NACA TR-460 (1933).
[12]. R.C. Platt, memorandum for Dr. Lewis, “Airfoil sections employed for wings of modern airplanes,” Sept. 2, 1937, RA file 290, Langley Research Center Historical Archives; Baals and Corliss, Wind Tunnels of NASA, pp. 15–17 (quote).
[13]. Edward P. Warner, “Research to the Fore,” Aviation, vol. 33, no. 6 (June 1934), p. 186; “Research Symphony: The Langley Philharmonic in Opus No. 10,” Aviation, vol. 34, no. 6 (June 1935), pp. 15–18.
[14]. George W. Gray, Frontiers of Flight: The Story of NACA Research (New York: A.A. Knopf, 1948), p. 156; James R. Hansen, Engineer in Charge: A History of the Langley Aeronautical Laboratory, 1917–1958, NASA SP-4305 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1987), pp. 462–463; NASA, “Wind Tunnels at NASA Langley Research Center,” FS-2001-04-64-LaRC, 2001, http://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/news/factsheets/windtunnels.html, accessed May 28, 2009.
[15]. Glenn E. Bugos, Atmosphere of Freedom: Sixty Years at the NASA Ames Research Center, NASA SP-4314 (Washington, DC: GPO, 2000), pp. 6–13.
[16]. The NACA renamed the AERL the Propulsion Research Laboratory in 1947 and changed the name of the facility once again to the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory a year later in honor of George W. Lewis, the committee’s first Director of Aeronautical Research. Virginia P. Dawson, Engines and Innovation: Lewis Laboratory and American Propulsion Technology, NASA SP-4306 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1991), pp. 2–14, 36.
[17]. Ernest G. Whitney, “Altitude Tunnel at AERL,” Lecture 22, June 23, 1943, http://awt.grc.nasa.gov/resources/Research_Documents/Altitude_Wind_Tunnel_at_AERL.pdf, accessed Oct. 12, 2009.
[18]. William M. Leary, “We Freeze to Please”: A History of NASA’s Icing Research Tunnel and the Quest for Flight Safety, NASA SP-2002-4226 (Washington, DC: NASA, 2002), pp. 19–37; Baals and Corliss, Wind Tunnels of NASA, pp. 45–46; NASA Langley, “NASA’s Wind Tunnels,” IS-1992-05-002-LaRC, May 1992, http://oea.larc.nasa.gov/PAIS/WindTunnel.html, accessed May 26, 2009.
[19]. In 1987, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers designated the IRT an International Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark.
[20]. John Becker, The High Speed Frontier: Case Histories of Four NACA Programs 1920–1950, NASA SP-445 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1980), p. 61.
[21]. Hansen, Engineer in Charge, pp. 327–328, 454; Steven T. Corneliussen, “The Transonic Wind Tunnel and the NACA Technical Culture,” in Pamela E. Mack, ed., From Engineering Science to Big Science: The NACA and NASA Collier Trophy Research Project Winners, NASA SP-4219 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1998), p. 133.
[22]. Ibid., p. 91; Hansen, Engineer in Charge, pp. 329, 330–331.
[23]. Joseph R. Chambers, Innovation in Flight: Research of the NASA Langley Research Center on Revolutionary Advanced Concepts for Aeronautics, NASA SP-2005-4539 (Washington, DC: GPO, 2005), pp. 18–19.
[24]. “Report of President’s Air Policy Commission Calling for a Greatly Enlarged Defense Force,” New York Times, Jan. 14, 1948, p. 21.
[25]. NASA Ames Applied Aerodynamics Branch, “The Unitary Plan Wind Tunnels” (July 1994), pp. 3–4; Hansen, Engineer in Charge, pp. 474–475.
[26]. Arnold Air Force Base, “Arnold Engineering Development Center,” 2007, http://www.arnold.af.mil/library/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=12977, accessed July 30, 2009.
[27]. Baals and Corliss, Wind Tunnels of NASA, pp. 65–66.
[28]. “Manual for Users of the Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel Facilities of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics,” NACA TM-80998 (1956), p. 1; Baals and Corliss, Wind Tunnels of NASA, pp. 66, 71 (quote).
[29]. “Manual for Users of the Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel Facilities,” pp. i, 1, 5–9.
[30]. William T. Shaefer, Jr., “Characteristics of Major Active Wind Tunnels at the Langley Research Center,” NASA TM-X-1130 (July 1965), p. 32; Hansen, Engineer in Charge, pp. 474–475.
[31]. Baals and Corliss, Wind Tunnels of NASA, pp. 68–69.
[32]. NASA Ames Applied Aerodynamics Branch, “The Unitary Plan Wind Tunnels” (July 1994), p. 9; NASA Langley, “NASA’s Wind Tunnels,” IS-1992-05-002-LaRC, May 1992, http://oea.larc.nasa.gov/PAIS/WindTunnel.html, accessed May 26, 2009.
[33]. NASA Ames Applied Aerodynamics Branch, “The Unitary Plan Wind Tunnels” (July 1994), pp. 3–7.
[34]. Ibid., pp. 1, 3, 12–14.
[35]. National Park Service, “National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics Wind Tunnels: Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel,” Jan. 2001, http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/butowsky4/space4.htm, accessed May 28, 2009; and Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel,” n.d., http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/aviation/uni.htm, accessed July 31, 2009.
[36]. Baals and Corliss, Wind Tunnels of NASA, pp. 69–70; NASA Langley, “NASA’s Wind Tunnels,” IS-1992-05-002-LaRC, May 1992, http://oea.larc.nasa.gov/PAIS/WindTunnel.html, accessed May 26, 2009.
[37]. Hansen, Engineer in Charge, pp. 462–463; NASA, “Wind Tunnels at NASA Langley Research Center,” FS-2001-04-64-LaRC, 2001, http://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/news/factsheets/windtunnels.html, accessed May 28, 2009; Langley Research Center, “Research and Test Facilities,” NASA TM-1096859 (1993), p. 17; Rachel C. Samples, “A New Spin on the Constellation Program,” Aug. 2007, http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/constellation/orion/orion-spintunnel.html, accessed Sept. 14, 2009.
[38]. Richard T. Whitcomb, “A Study of the Zero-Lift Drag-Rise Characteristics of Wing-Body Combinations Near the Speed of Sound,” NACA RM-L52H08 (Sept. 3, 1952).
[39]. Richard T. Whitcomb and Thomas L. Fischetti, “Development of a Supersonic Area Rule and an Application to the Design of a Wing-Body Combination Having High Lift-to-Drag Ratios,” NACA RM-L53H31A (Aug. 18, 1953); Richard T. Whitcomb, “Some Considerations Regarding the Application of the Supersonic Area Rule to the Design of Airplane Fuselages,” NACA RM-L56E23a (July 3, 1956).
[40]. Hansen, Engineer in Charge, p. 474.
[41]. Richard T. Whitcomb and Larry L. Clark, “An Airfoil Shape for Efficient Flight at Supercritical Mach Numbers,” NASA TM-X-1109 (Apr. 20, 1965); Michael Gorn, Expanding the Envelope: Flight Research at NACA and NASA (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2001), p. 331.
[42]. Thomas C. McMurtry, Neil W. Matheny, and Donald H. Gatlin, “Piloting and Operational Aspects of the F-8 Supercritical Wing Airplane,” in Supercritical Wing Technology—A Progress Report on Flight Evaluations, NASA SP-301 (1972), p. 102; Gorn, Expanding the Envelope, pp. 335, 337.
[43]. Richard T. Whitcomb, “A Design Approach and Selected Wind-Tunnel Results at High Subsonic Speeds for Wing-Tip Mounted Winglets,” NASA TN-D-8260 (July 1976), p. 1; Chambers, Concept to Reality, p. 35.
[44]. Ibid., pp. 38, 41, 43.
[45]. Hansen, Engineer in Charge, pp. 459, 462.
[46]. E. Carson Yates, Jr., Norman S. Land, and Jerome T. Foughner, Jr., “Measured and Calculated Subsonic and Transonic Flutter Characteristics of a 45 Degree Sweptback Wing Planform in Air and Freon-12 in the Langley Transonic Dynamics Tunnel,” NASA TN-D-1616 (Mar. 1963), p. 13.
[47]. Hansen, Engineer in Charge, 459, 462; Baals and Corliss, Wind Tunnels of NASA, pp. 78–80; NASA, “Wind Tunnels at NASA Langley Research Center,” FS-2001-04-64-LaRC, 2001, http://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/news/factsheets/windtunnels.html, accessed May 28, 2009.
[48]. William E. Giles, “Air Crash Aftermath,” Wall Street Journal, Oct. 13, 1959, p. 1; “Airliner Lost Wing,” New York Times, Oct. 28, 1959, p. 75.
[49]. Wayne Thomis, “What Air Crash Probers Seek,” Chicago Daily Tribune, Mar. 18, 1960, p. 3; “Wild Flutter Split Wings Of Electras,” Washington Post, Times Herald, May 13, 1960, p. D6; Baals and Corliss, Wind Tunnels of NASA, p. 80.
[50]. Ibid., p. 80.
[51]. Ibid., p. 155.
[52]. Jerome T. Foughner, Jr., and Charles T. Bensinger, “F-16 Flutter Model Studies with External Wing Stores,” NASA TM-74078 (Oct. 1977), pp. 1, 7, 14.
[53]. NASA, “Wind Tunnels at NASA Langley Research Center,” FS-2001-04-64-LaRC, 2001, http://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/news/factsheets/windtunnels.html, accessed May 28, 2009.
[54]. Baals and Corliss, Wind Tunnels of NASA, pp. 86, 101; T.A. Heppenheimer, Facing the Heat Barrier: A History of Hypersonics, NASA SP-2007-4232 (Washington, DC: GPO, 2007), p. 42.
[55]. Ibid., pp. xi, 2.
[56]. James C. Emery, “Appendix: Description and Calibration of the Langley 20-inch Mach 6 Tunnel,” in Theodore J. Goldberg and Jerry N. Hefner, “Starting Phenomena for Hypersonic Inlets with Thick Turbulent Boundary Layers at Mach 6,” NASA TN-D-6280 (Aug. 1971), pp. 13–15; Hansen, Engineer in Charge, p. 478.
[57]. Baals and Corliss, Wind Tunnels of NASA, pp. 84–85, 90.
[58]. Ibid., p. 85.
[59]. For more information on ballistic ranges, see Alvin Seiff and Thomas N. Canning, “Modern Ballistic Ranges and Their Uses,” NASA TM-X-66530 (Aug. 1970).
[60]. Heppenheimer, Facing the Heat Barrier, pp. 32, 40–42; NASA Ames Research Center, “Thermophsyics Facilities Branch Range Complex,” n.d., http://thermo-physics.arc.nasa.gov/fact_sheets/Range%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf, accessed Oct. 13, 2009.
[61]. Jim J. Jones, “Resume of Experiments Conducted in the High-Pressure Shock Tube of the Gas Dynamics Tube at NASA,” NASA TM-X-56214 (Mar. 1959), p. 1; Hansen, Engineer in Charge, pp. 473–474.
[62]. Baals and Corliss, Wind Tunnels of NASA, p. 92.
[63]. Ibid., p. 95.
[64]. Ibid., pp. 94–97.
[65]. Hansen, Engineer in Charge, pp. 475–478.
[66]. Gemini I (Apr. 1964) and II (Jan. 1965) were unpiloted missions. Gemini III (Mar. 1965) and IV (June 1965) included astronaut crews. NASA Kennedy Space Center, “Gemini Missions,” Nov. 9, 2000, http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/history/gemini/gemini-manned.htm, accessed Aug. 14, 2009.
[67]. Richard M. Raper, “Heat-Transfer and Pressure Measurements Obtained During Launch and Reentry of the First Four Gemini-Titan Missions and Some Comparisons with Wind-Tunnel Data,” NASA TM-X-1407 (Aug. 1967), pp. 1, 14.
[68]. Baals and Corliss, Wind Tunnels of NASA, p. 107; Heppenheimer, Facing the Heat Barrier, p. 55.
[69]. Ibid., p. 82.
[70]. Hansen, Engineer in Charge, pp. 475–478.
[71]. H. Julian Allen and Alfred J. Eggers, Jr., “A Study of the Motion and Aerodynamic Heating of Ballistic Missiles Entering the Earth’s Atmosphere at High Supersonic Speeds,” NACA TR-1381 (1958).
[72]. Kenneth W. Iliff and Mary F. Shafer, “Space Shuttle Hypersonic Aerodynamic and Aerothermodynamic Flight Research and the Comparison to Ground Test Results,” NASA TM-4499 (1993), p. 3.
[73]. Heppenheimer, Facing the Heat Barrier, pp. 208, 271, 273.
[74]. William C. Woods, Scott D. Holland, and Michael DiFulvio, “Hyper-X Stage Separation Wind-Tunnel Test Program,” Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, vol. 38 (Nov.–Dec. 2001), p. 811.
[75]. Baals and Corliss, Wind Tunnels of NASA, p. 136; Hansen, Engineer in Charge, p. 479.
[76]. Baals and Corliss, Wind Tunnels of NASA, p. 71.
[77]. Ibid., p. 136.
[78]. Reference in James R. Hansen, The Bird is on the Wing: Aerodynamics and the Progress of the American Airplane (College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 2004), p. 221.
[79]. Victor L. Peterson and William F. Ballhaus, Jr., “History of the Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation Program,” in Paul Kutler and Helen Yee, Supercomputing in Aerospace: Proceedings of a Symposium Held at the NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, Mar. 10–12, 1987