expanded from the original NACA 40x80 tunnel.]
Tuesday, August 25, 2009; 9:00am-11:00am
NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field
NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California, has been selected as a 2009 Historic Aerospace Site by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Historic Sites Committee. The AIAA Board of Directors runs its Historical Site program to recognize "noteworthy and significant contributions made in both aeronautics and astronautics to culture and technology." AIAA will officially confer this honor at a celebration on Tuesday, August 25. The celebration starts at 9:00 with a brunch reception in the Ames Cafe. At 10:00 we assemble at the corner of DeFrance and Durand avenues, near the site of the former 14 foot wind tunnel and the future site of the NACA Park. A plaque dedication ceremony features dignitaries from NASA Ames and the AIAA. If you do not have a NASA Ames badge, please RSVP to Emily Springer at 703.264.7533 or emilys@aiaa.org by August 20; people who are not US citizens should RSVP by August 15. Click here for AIAA invitation.
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[Above: NASA Ames 80x120 full-scale wind tunnel, expanded from the original NACA 40x80 tunnel.] |
Ames was established in 1939 as Ames Aeronautical Laboratory, the second laboratory of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), and was named for long-time (1919-1939) NACA chair, Joseph Sweetman Ames. The Moffett Field site was selected by a search committee headed by Charles Lindbergh, and established by an act of Congress in August 1939.
The selection committee recognized that
NASA Ames has witnessed events significant to aerospace history, hosted facilities of unique design and capability, and fostered the careers of people who forged aerospace history. By its selection as a 2009 Historic Aerospace Site, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics pays tribute to NASA Ames' legacy of sustained, significant contribution to aerospace history. Like Silicon Valley which surrounds it, and since its founding in 1939 Ames has developed an organizational culture that encourages researchers to constantly reinvent themselves and drive important new fields. Ames pioneered the technology behind all reentry vehicles, starting with the blunt body concept. Ames developed simulation facilities such as arc jets and ballistic ranges, designed thermal protection systems for manned spacecraft, and engineered probes that blazed into the atmospheres of Venus and Jupiter. Ames people solved the complex aerodynamics of rotorcraft, of powered-lift VTOLs, tilt-rotors, and V/STOL aircraft. Ames people designed and built what was one of the world's greatest collections of wind tunnels, then supplemented them with the new technology of computational fluid dynamics. Ames led the development of simulators for human factors research, and made major improvements to air traffic management. In the exploration of space, NASA Ames engineered the Pioneer series of high-impact robotic explorers and other small satellites, launched the discipline of astrobiology and space sciences research in planetary atmospheres, and designed and operated airborne science platforms. As a site of sustained accomplishment in aerospace research and development, the NASA Ames Research Center fully merits this designation as an AIAA Historic Aerospace Site.