1952

From The Space Library

Convair designers became interested in conical camber principle conceived by NACA Ames Laboratory scientist Charles F. Hall in 1949 verified by wind tunnel experiments 1950-57, and applied with success to the F-102 fighter and the B-58 bomber.

Transistors first placed in service in Bell Telephone System network as part of long-distance dialing service.

New optical and photographic methods for rapidly measuring rocket combustion temperatures and flow processes developed by NACA Lewis Laboratory.

NACA Lewis Propulsion Laboratory first identified high-frequency combustion-oscillations in jet engine afterburners, developed partial controls by 1954, and rational design solutions by 1958.

First actual animal experiments on weightlessness carried out in rocket launches by AF Aeromedical Laboratory at Holloman AFB, while E. R. Ballinger conducted first manned aircraft weightlessness experiments with instrumented humans at Wright-Patterson AFB.

NACA undertook studies of the problems of manned and unmanned flight in the upper atmosphere and at hypersonic speeds, such studies leading to the development of the rocket-propelled X-15 research airplane.