Scope and Content
Common Abbreviations in the Ames Records
Title: NACA Ames Aeronautical Laboratory Records at NARA San Francisco
Date (inclusive): 1939-1958
Collection Number: Record Group 255.4.1
National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, Ames Aeronautical Laboratory;
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Ames Research Center
Extent: Number of containers: 791 boxes
Volume: 250 linear feet
National Archives and Records Administration,
Pacific Region, at San Francisco.
San Bruno, California 94066-2350
Collection is open for research.
Copyright does not apply to United States government records. For non-government
material, researcher must contact the original creator.
[Identification of item], RG 255.4.1, NACA Ames Aeronautical Laboratory Records, Container number, Folder title, National
Archives and Records Administration, Pacific Region (San Francisco),
San Bruno, California.
The Ames Aeronautical Laboratory was the second laboratory of the National Advisory
Committee on Aeronautics (NACA). The NACA was created by act of Congress on March 3, 1915
and charged with the development of aeronautical research and testing facilities to
improve both civil and military aviation. By 1917 the NACA had built a fully operational
aeronautical research facility called the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory near
Norfolk, Virginia. By 1939, American political leaders recognized that the world was
heading toward war and that other nations had surpassed the United States in basic
aeronautical research. NACA leaders recognized that the Langley laboratory had run out of
space for new wind tunnels and was straining the electrical capacity in the area. Thus,
the Roosevelt Administration forcefully endorsed a report from the NACA Special Committee
on Future Research Facilities, dated December 30, 1938, that argued for the establishment
of a second research installation near the West Coast aircraft manufacturers. The
tentative site suggested was the U.S. Naval Air Field and Army training base at Moffett
Field in Sunnyvale, California. On February 3, 1939 President Roosevelt transmitted the
$10 million request to Congress for incorporation into the second deficiency bill. A
stiff partisan political struggle followed, however, and it was not until August 9, 1939,
that the funds were approved as a part of the third deficiency bill.
Construction of the second laboratory began on December 20, 1939, led by an elite group
from Langley, whose building priorities indicated a sense of urgency: flight research
building, wind funnels, the technical services facilities, and lastly the administration
building. On April 18, 1940, the center was christened Ames Aeronautical Laboratory to
honor Dr. Joseph Ames, the chairman of NACA from 1927 to 1939 and a staunch advocate for
basic scientific research and the responsibility of the federal government in training
people for it. Responsibility for organizing the center rested with the
Engineer-in-Chief, Dr. Smith J. De France, served as Center Director from 1940 to 1965.
Smitty DeFrance was ably assisted by John F. Parsons, his deputy in charge of
administrative matters, by Harry Goett who directed low-speed wind tunnel research, and
Harvey Allen who directed high-speed wind tunnel research. Allen joked in 1943 that he
was actually in charge of "Theoretical Aerodynamics and Reinforced Concrete" because, in
fact, the bulk of everyone's efforts at Ames was in building facilities as quickly as
possible, rather than conducting research.
The first research effort at Ames involved flight test aircraft rather than wind tunnels.
The Royal Air Force Bomber Command raids over Germany pointed out the need for a de-icing
system to allow aircraft to fly in all types of weather. Within a year an effective
hot-air de-icing system had been developed at Ames for American heavy bombers, and Ames
led the development of methods to test for icing conditions in actual flight. Lewis
Rodert won the 1947 Collier Trophy in recognition of the outstanding research done at
Ames. Later, the knowledge of heat transfer gained in wing de-icing experiments was
applied to problems of jet aircraft and missile design.
During World War II, Ames kept its wind tunnels in almost constant operation, working to
improve such famous production aircraft as the P-51 Mustang and the P-38 Lightning. A
complete set of wind-tunnels was available to West coast manufactures and their military
customers: the smaller 1-by-3 foot tunnel that operated at supersonic speeds, to the
workhorse 7-by-10 wind tunnels, to the 40-by-80 full scale wind tunnel, then the world's
largest. In 1943, the Research Division was split into two divisions, one for theoretical
and applied research and the other for full-scale flight investigations. In 1944, the
technical service group and the technical shops were combined into the Service Division.
Otherwise, Ames' organization changed little during the war years.
Ames changed more dramatically in the post-war period. In 1953, as a result of the Hoover
Commission on Government Reorganization and its recommendation on establishing a uniform
nomenclature for all governament agencies, sections were renamed branches, the primary
operational unit below the division. Two new divisions were added at Ames: the High-Speed
and Flight Research Division, and the Research Instrumentation and Engineering Services
Another key addition, in 1950, was the Ames Unitary Plan Design Group. More high-speed
tunnels and more sensitive instrumentation were required for the United States to compete
in the world of jet aircraft and guided missiles. To combine the talents of NACA,
university, military, and industry researchers--as well as to forge a unified front in
lobbying for the enormous funds required--Ames led the formation of a Unitary Plan wind
tunnel design group. This group was to design a series of high-speed wind tunnels located
wherever such research was needed, at a total estimated cost of $10 billion. After
Congress whittled down the Unitary Plan to $27 million only one such tunnel was
constructed--at Ames. Not only was the tunnel itself an engineering masterwork--with
three tunnels operating integrated to make the most efficient use of drive motors and
researchers' time--but the tunnel supported much of the key work that led America into
the space age.
By 1957, international pressures, the arms race, and the orbit of Sputnik again forced
change in the administrative structure of Ames. On July 29, 1958, the National
Aeronautics and Space Act was signed. On October 1, 1958, the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration was born, it absorbed the NACA, and Ames became a part of America's
Scope and Content
The NACA Ames records document a broad range of theoretical work, applied research, and
testing related to aeronautics and space technology. Subjects include aerodynamics,
airframe problems, flight simulation, instrument development, satellite re-entry, heat
transfer and de-icing. It also documents design and wind tunnel testing of such aircraft
as the P-51 Mustang and P-38 Lightning. Also included are records relating to project
proposals and research authorizations, minutes of the NACA committees on which Ames staff
served, and general administrative matters. The records are primarily central files,
consisting of correspondence, data sheets, minutes of meetings, memorandums,
specifications, and technical reports. Nontextual records include artwork, engineering
drawings, and photographs interfiled with textual records. The general Ames photograph
files are still in the Federal Record Center.
Common Abbreviations in the Ames Records
1. Branch Codes used by the Ames Report Unit
The Report Unit was the office at Ames that compiled and published technical reports.
These reports were written by researchers working in the technical branches at Ames.
These branches were identified by a two-letter code which often appear in the file
headings for Report Unit records, as well as in the Central File records.
The two letter code mimics the organization chart at Ames. For example, every branch
within the Aeronautics Division began with the letter A. The second letter identified the
specific branch. The branches were usually defined as a group working with a specific
tool, like a wind tunnel. More recently, the branch codes can be found in the Ames
telephone directories. For the 1950s, these branch codes were used.
7-by-10 foot Wind Tunnel Branch
16 foot High Speed Wind Tunnel Branch
1-by-3 foot Speed Wind Tunnel Branch
40-by-80 foot Wind Tunnel Branch
1-by-3 foot Supersonic Wind Tunnel
12 foot Pressure Wind Tunnel Branch
6-by-6 foot Supersonic Wind Tunnel Branch
Flight Research Branch
Flight Engineering Branch
Theoretical Aerodynamics Branch
Instrument Development Branch
10-by-14 inch Supersonic Wind Tunnel Branch
Supersonic Free Flight Wind Tunnel Branch
Low Density Heat Transfer Wind Tunnel Branch
Unitary Plan Design Group
2. NACA and NASA Report Abbreviations
The basic product of all NACA work, and to a lesser extent NASA work, was the technical
report. Thus, RG255.4 contains a great many reports or draft reports, primarily in the
Report Unit series but also interfiled in the Central File series. All reports were
published by the Government Printing Office, and some were reprinted in scientific
journals, though not all were given broad public distribution.
Each report is identified by an alpha-numeric code. The suffix is a number assigned
chronologically. The prefix is a letter code (shown below) that identifies the type of
report it is, and these categories have changed several times over NACA and NASA history.
For a complete description of the report generation process see: Alex Roland,
Model Research: The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, 1915-1958(NASA SP-4103, 1985) especially volume II, Appendix G "Reports." Generally,
advance reports, notes, and memorandum present partial or preliminary results of a
research project and are data-rich but text-light. These are intended to expedite the
flow of information to NACA customers. Reports are the more formal presentation of ideas,
hypotheses, and supporting data.
The report-related files in RG255.4 only occasionally hold the final published reports.
Mostly they contain raw research data, drawings or photographs, draft versions, peer
reviews, distribution lists, and correspondence with the printing office. Thus,
researchers can always start their research into NACA reports more efficiently by finding
the published report elsewhere. Reports can be found on microfiche at most federal
government depository libraries (to locate the one nearest you point your browser to
NASA's technical report server (RECONselect) allows users to search NASA and NACA
publications by author, title, report name, or subject heading, and the Digidocs system
allows readers to download digitized versions of select NACA reports. To access the
technical report server point your browser to:
. Reports can also be
found at many engineering libraries or NASA Center libraries.
Prefix abbreviations for NACA reports:
- ACR= Advance
- ARR= Advance Restricted
- CMR= Confidential Memorandum
- CR= Contract Report
- CRM= Confidential Research Memorandum
- Memo= Memorandum
- Rep= Report
- RM= Research Memorandum
- RMR= Restricted Memorandum Report
- TN= Technical
- TR= Technical Report
- WR= Wartime Report