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Quest for Performance: The Evolution
of Modern Aircraft
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- Part I: THE AGE OF
PROPELLERS
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- Chapter 4: Design Revolution
1926-39
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- Background
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- [77] The pace of
aircraft development began to accelerate by the middle 1920's.
Policies were established within the United States that assured
consistent, although somewhat small, yearly appropriations for the
procurement and development of new military aircraft. In an
attempt to improve the poor aviation safety record and thus
enhance the image of aviation as a serious means of
transportation, laws were enacted that required the licensing of
civil aircraft and pilots. Airworthiness standards were developed
for the aircraft, and proficiency requirements were established
for the licensing of pilots. The aircraft airworthiness
requirements opened a market for the development of new types of
general aviation aircraft. War surplus aircraft, such as the
Jenny, either could not meet the new requirements or their
certification would have proved economically unfeasible. The
airmail that had been carried by Government aircraft for many
years reverted to private contractors. Thus began the airline
industry, albeit in a small way. Under the stimulus of these
influences, the aircraft industry began to grow.
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- The pace at which advanced aircraft can be
developed is closely coupled to the generation of new and advanced
technology. The results of research investigations by the Langley
Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory of the National Advisory
Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) began to play an increasingly
important part in providing the new technology necessary for the
development of advanced aircraft. Investigations in aerodynamics,
stability and control, propulsion, loads, dynamics, and structures
formed the research program of NACA. Wind tunnels, laboratories,
flight research, and analytical studies were the means by which
new technology was developed. The results of NACA's research
investigations were made available to the industry in the form of
technical reports. Bound volumes of these reports, covering the
[78]
entire lifespan of NACA from 1915 to 1958, are a part of most good
technical libraries. Indexes such as those cited in reference
74 give a complete bibliography of research
publications by NACA. Years subsequent to 1949 are covered in
additional indexes. Brief accounts of the significant research
activities of NACA are contained in references 49, 56, and 73.
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- The universities played an important role
in educating young aeronautical engineers and in various aspects
of aeronautical research. Schools of aeronautical engineering
sponsored by the Guggenheim Foundation were particularly
important. These schools existed at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, the California Institute of Technology, New York
University, the University of Michigan, the Georgia Institute of
Technology, Stanford University, and the University of Akron. The
contributions of the Guggenheim Foundation to the development of
aeronautics in the United States are described in reference
70.
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- The military services played an extremely
important role not only in the generation of new technology but in
sponsoring the application of that technology in the development
of new and useful operating systems. Thus, the development and
operation of new military equipment provided a highly significant
foundation of proven components, such as engines, for use in new
civil aircraft. A summary of the contributions of military
aeronautical research and development to the development of
advanced commercial aircraft throughout the thirties, forties, and
fifties is contained in reference 104. A close relationship can frequently be found
between the development of advanced military aircraft and new
commercial aircraft that employed not only many of the design
features of military aircraft but also hardware and concepts that
had been proved in military aviation.
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