NASA Reference Materials - Aeronautics E-Books

NASA Reference Materials: Aeronautics E-Books

"Apollo of Aeronautics: NASA's Aircraft Energy Efficiency Program, 1973-1987" (by Mark D. Bowles)

The fuel crisis of the 1970s threatened not only the airline industry but also the future of American prosperity itself. It also served as the genesis of technological ingenuity and innovation from a group of scientists and engineers at NASA, who initiated planning exercises to explore new fuel-saving technologies. What emerged was a series of technologically daring aeronautical programs with the potential to reduce by an astonishing 50 percent the amount of fuel used by the nation's commercial and military aircraft.

"Ikhana: Unmanned Aircraft System, Western States Fire Missions" (by Peter W. Merlin)

The story of the Ikhana, a remotely piloted vehicle used by NASA researchers to conduct Earth science research and which became an unexpected flying and imaging helper to emergency workers battling California wildfires.

"Modeling Flight" (by Joseph R. Chambers)

For years, NASA has used subscale models of aircraft to test how they would perform at full size. In fact, since the 1920s during the days of the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, scientists have continually refined testing techniques including building and using new facilities, making models more sophisticated and learning how to best interpret the results. Using these techniques, NASA has made many contributions to a broad range of aircraft including general aviation, fighters, civil transports, lifting bodies, reentry capsules, parawing vehicles, and supersonic transports. This book describes the issues that must be considered when transferring subscale results to full-scale application, and reviews results obtained in historically significant aircraft programs conducted at NASA's Langley Research Center, NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, and NASA's Ames Research Center.

"NASA's Contributions to Aeronautics, Volume 1" (edited by Richard P. Hallion)

Since its creation, NASA has steadily advanced flight within the atmosphere, repeatedly influencing aviation's evolution by extending the rich legacy of its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, or NACA. This first volume in a two-volume set includes case studies and essays on NACA-NASA research for contributions such as high-speed wing design, the area rule, rotary-wing aerodynamics research, sonic boom mitigation, hypersonic design, computational fluid dynamics, electronic flight control and environmentally friendly aircraft technology.

"NASA's Contributions to Aeronautics, Volume 2" (edited by Richard P. Hallion)

The second volume includes case studies and essays on NACA-NASA research for contributions including wind shear and lightning research, flight operations, human factors, wind tunnels, composite structures, general aviation aircraft safety, supersonic cruise aircraft research and atmospheric icing.

"X-15: Extending the Frontiers of Flight" (by Dennis R. Jenkins)

The X-15 was the ultimate "X" vehicle. Built in the 1950s, she became the fastest and highest-flying winged aircraft of its time. During 199 flights from 1959 through 1968, she collected data about hypersonic flight that was invaluable to aeronautics and to developers of the space shuttle. This book describes the genesis of the program, the design and construction of the aircraft, years of research flights and the experiments that flew aboard them.