Before there was a “Silicon Valley,” there was the Ames Aeronautical Laboratory between Mountain View and Sunnyvale in California. Dec. 20, 2014, marks the 75th anniversary of what became the second laboratory of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), which itself was founded 100 years ago in 1915. The laboratory was renamed NASA’s Ames Research Center with the transition of the NACA to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1958.
Shown is Russell Robinson (right) supervising the first excavation for the Ames laboratory on Dec. 20, 1939.
During its earliest days, the center’s researchers broke new ground in all flight regimes — the subsonic, transonic, supersonic and hypersonic — through construction of increasingly sophisticated wind tunnels, research aircraft, and methods of theoretical aerodynamics. Building upon its incredible capability with wind tunnels, Ames research expanded into computational fluid dynamics, simulation technology, information technology, air traffic management research, tilt rotorcraft, atmospheric entry systems, human factors and life sciences. Ames was influential in many ways in establishing what is now known as Silicon Valley. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs’ biography quotes him as saying he saw a computer terminal for the first time as a boy at Ames, and “…fell totally in love with it.”
Today, in addition to its continuing research in aeronautics and life sciences, Ames pushes the frontiers of research in lunar science, astrobiology, small low-cost missions, airborne science and the search for planets outside of our own solar system. In addition, Ames is developing part of its campus into a shared research park with more than partners from academia, industry and non-profit organizations.
To learn more about Ames, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/ames