Page:Aeronautics and Astronautics Chronology 1915-1960.pdf/32

 March 21: The Navy initiated the development of the Lark surface-to-air guided missile in a BuAer contract with Fairchild Aircraft.

During March: "Summary of Airfoil Data," by Ira H. Abbott, A. E. von Doenhoff, and Louis Stievers of NACA Langley Laboratory, was issued, a classic reference summarizing NACA data on airfoil sections.


 * Project Paperclip to recruit German missile scientists was initiated in the Pentagon.

During Spring: A supplemental appropriation passed by Congress authorized expanded research on guided missiles at NACA Langley Laboratory, including the establishment of a rocket launch facility at Wallops Island, Va.

April 1-13: 17 JPL Private F rockets were fired at Hueco Range, Fort Bliss, Tex.

During April: Aberdeen Proving Ground wind-tunnel tests of a sweptback wing at Mach 1.72 were carried out on the suggestion of Theodore von Kármán.

May 5: Russian ground forces occupied Peenemünde, Germany.

May 8: World War II ended in Europe.


 * At the time of the German collapse, more than 20,000 V-weapons, V-1s and V-2s, had been fired. Although figures vary, the best estimate is that 1,115 V-2 ballistic rockets had been successfully fired against England and 1,675 against continental targets. There was a great disparity between production figures and operational missions due to concurrent series production and development testing.

May 10: Crash program to counter Japanese Baka (suicide) bomb, Naval Aircraft Modification Unit was authorized to develop Little Joe, a ship-to-air missile powered with a standard JATO unit.

During May: Boeing began development of Gapa (ground-to-air pilotless aircraft) anti-aircraft missile for USAAF. Within 2 years, 37 Gapa missiles had been fired, and by October 1949, a total of 102 successful firings had taken place.

June 19: Dr. Frank L. Wattendorf, Engineering Division, Wright Field, and a member of the AAF Scientific Advisory Group, recommended to Brig. Gen. F. O. Carroll, Chief of the Engineering Division, that an Air Force Development Center, including facilities for the development of supersonic aircraft and missiles, be built away from Wright Field and near a large source of power.

June 25: Construction began at White Sands Proving Ground.

During June: The Army Ground Forces Equipment Review Board concluded that increased emphasis should be placed on the development of guided missiles.


 * XC-99, the cargo version of the B-36, made its first flight.

July 4: Baby Wac rocket, a one-fifth scale model of the Wac Corporal proposal, was flight-tested at Camp Irwin by JPL.


 * The first rocket launch at NACA's new Wallops Island facility was for the calibration of radar instrumentation.

July 13: White Sands Proving Ground (WSPG) was activated.

July 14: AAF A-20s from Hollandia set fire to Japanese oil fields at Boela, Ceram, in the first use of rocket bombs in the Southwest Pacific.

July 16: The first test atomic device was exploded in New Mexico.

July 20: The Navy's Little Joe anti-aircraft missile made two successful flights at the Applied Physics Laboratory test station at Island Beach, N.J.

July 23: Life magazine published drawings of a manned space station as envisioned by the German rocket scientists of Peenemünde.

During July: The first launching of a two-stage rocket-propelled research model, the Tiamat missile, employed six rockets as boosters, had automatic stabilization, its maneuvers were programmed, and its testing was the first research program of NACA's Wallops Island Station.

August 6: The first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.

August 9: The second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.

August 14: World War II ended with the Japanese surrender.


 * A team of American scientists was dispatched to Europe to collect information and equipment relating to German rocket progress.

August 24: The first successful use of a telemetry system in a rocket-propelled flight research model, the two-stage Tiamat, at NACA Wallops Island, Va.

During August: The first successful U.S. chemical gas, generator-driven, turbopump-fed, regeneratively cooled rocket engine (XCALT-6000) was delivered to the AAF by Aerojet-General Corp.


 * Components for approximately 100 V-2 ballistic missiles were shipped from Germany to White Sands Proving Ground.


 * The Joint Army-Navy Aeronautical Board established a Research Committee to investigate and report on matters affecting research, development, and testing of aircraft, including liaison with NACA and industry, and to recommend action to foster aeronautical research and development.

September 8: William F. Durand, one of the original members of NACA in 1915, retired.

September 20: The first flight of an airplane powered by propeller-turbine engines was made in England by an experimental Gloster Meteor powered with Rolls Royce Trent-engines with five-bladed propellers.

September 26: The Navy publicly demonstrated the Ryan Fireball FR-1 at NAS Anacostia, the first propeller-and-jet-powered airplane designed for aircraft carriers.


 * The Army Wac Corporal, in its first development flight, was fired at White Sands, establishing a U.S. record height of 43.5 miles, and was the first U.S. liquid-propellant rocket developed with government funds (constructed by Douglas and Aerojet under JPL Project).

During September: The first volume of the Toward New Horizons reports of the Army Air Forces Scientific Advisory Group (headed by Von Kármán), entitled Science: The Key to Air Supremacy, was submitted to the Commanding General of the AAF. These reports prepared by leading scientists are classic in their assessment of future developments emerging out of World War II advancements.

October 8: A Navy Committee for Evaluating the Feasibility of Space Rocketry (CEFSR) was established by BuAer. In November 1945, CEFSR recommended high priority for satellite development and estimated the cost between $5 and $8 million.

October 11: The first launch of the full Wac Corporal (WAC-A) at WSPG attained an altitude of 235,000 feet.

October 18: NACA Langley's Pilotless Aircraft Research Division (PARD) launched the first successful drag research vehicle for wing and body research, a forerunner of a large series of flight tests of various wings and bodies in a combination of transonic and supersonic speeds, providing basic design information later applied to all later supersonic aircraft and missiles.

October 30: The Chief of Army Ordnance invited the Secretary of the Navy to utilize the White Sands Proving Ground (WSPG) as a test range for naval-guided missiles (BuOrd) and for pilotless aircraft (BuAer).

During October: Secretary of War Patterson approved a plan to bring top German scientists to the United States to aid military research and development. A small group of German rocket specialists were brought to the United States under Project Paperclip to work on missile development at Fort Bliss and White Sands Proving Ground.


 * Navy BuOrd established a Guided Missiles, Jet Propulsion, and Countermeasures Section in its Research and Development Division.

November 6: The first jet landing on an aircraft carrier was made by Ens. Jake C. West, USN, in an FR-1 Navy turbojet and conventional reciprocating-engine fighter. 50