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NACA 100th Anniversary

NACA test pilots (from left) Mel Gough, Herb Hoover, Jack Reeder, Steve Cavallo and Bill Gray stand in front of a P-47.
Thanks to the NACA aeronautics legacy, every U.S. aircraft and every U.S. control tower has NASA-developed technology on board.

On March 3, 1915, Congress created the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the organization from which NASA was created in 1958.

In this 1945 photo, test pilots (from left) Mel Gough, Herb Hoover, Jack Reeder, Steve Cavallo and Bill Gray stand in front of a P-47 Thunderbolt. The photo was taken here at what was then the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory — the first civilian aviation research lab in the U.S.

NACA research led to advances in aeronautics that helped the Allies win World War II, spawned a world-leading civil aviation manufacturing industry, propelled supersonic flight, supported national security during the Cold War and laid the foundation for modern air travel and the space age.

Thanks to the NACA aeronautics legacy, every U.S. aircraft and every U.S. control tower has NASA-developed technology on board.

Learn more: www.nasa.gov/naca100