NACA Subcommittee on Combustion Meeting

The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) Subcommittee on Combustion holds a meeting at Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory in Cleveland, Ohio. The NACA was managed by committees that included members of their own staff along with representatives from industry, the military, other government agencies, and universities. The 17-person Executive Committee was the NACA’s primary administrative body. They met several times a year at the NACA headquarters office in Washington DC to discuss broad issues confronting the US aeronautical community. Jerome Hunsaker, head of the Department of Aeronautical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, served as the NACA chairman from 1941 to 1956. George Lewis was not a member of the Executive Committee but served a key role as the NACA’s Director of Aeronautical Research. The NACA’s organizational chart also included 11 technical committees, several of which had specialized subcommittees. There were over 100 different subcommittees between World War I and 1958. The number of active subcommittees varied over the years. Most existed only for a few years, but some continued for over a decade. The subcommittees met three or four times per year, often at the laboratory most closely associated with the area of research. A team of laboratory researchers presented briefings on their recent activities and plans for the future. The Subcommittee on Combustion existed from 1945 to the NACA’s demise in 1958.