Established in 1917, Langley (in Hampton, Virginia) was the original laboratory of NASA's predecessor organization, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). Auburn University history professor James Hansen describes how the flight of Sputnik I broadened Langley's research from cutting-edge aeronautics to the many facets of space travel.

This study focuses on the transformation of Langley's mission during the late 1950s and 1960s. (Langley became part of NASA in 1958.) This is must reading for anyone seeking to understand the development of aerospace research during this formative period. 542 pages, illustrated, hardcover.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James R. Hansen is Alumni Associate Professor of History and chair of the Department of History at Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama. He is the author of three books as well as several book chapters, articles, and reviews in aerospace history and the history of technology.

His books include: Engineer in Charge: A History of the Langley Aeronautical Laboratory, 1917-1958, which was published by NASA in 1987, and From the Ground Up: The Autobiography of an Aeronautical Engineer, co-authored by American aviation pioneer Fred E. Weick and published by the Smithso nian Institution Press in 1988. The latter book received the History Book Award of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).

Professor Hansen has received a number of citations for his historical scholarship, including the Robert H. Goddard Award from the National Space Club and distinctions of excellence from the Air Force Historical Foundation and the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics. In 1986 1987 he gave historical talks around the country as an AIAA Distinguished Lecturer. He has served on a number of important advisory boards and panels, including the Research Advisory Board of the National Air and Space Museum, the Editorial Advisory Board of the Smithsonian Institution Press, the Board of Advisers for the Society for the History of Technology, and the Advisory Board for the Archives of Aerospace Exploration at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He is also a past vice-president of the board of directors of the Virginia Air and Space Center and Hampton Roads History Center in Hampton, Virginia.

At Auburn University, Dr. Hansen teaches courses on the history of flight, the history of science, space history, as well as a large auditorium class that surveys the history of technology from ancient times to the present or, as he puts it, "from Australopithecus to Arthur Clarke."

Hansen earned an A.B. degree, with high honors, from Indiana University (1974) and an M.A. (1976) and Ph.D. (1981) from The Ohio State University. He was born in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, on 12 June 1952. He is married to Margaret Anne M iller-Hansen and has two children, Nathaniel and Jennifer.

Read Spaceflight Revolution: NASA Langley Research Center From Sputnik to Apollo Online

By James R. Hansen
The NASA History Series
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Washington, D.C., 1995

FORWARD
James R. Hansen has impeccable credentials as a thorough, perceptive investigator and writer of technological history. His accomplishments in the field are outstanding, as exemplified by his book Engineer in Charge, which was published in 1987.

This book presents a careful analysis of the history of the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) from its formation in 1917 to the demise of the NACA in October 1958 when this prestigious organization became the centerpiece of the new National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Whereas the NACA was concerned primarily with aeronautical research conducted by government employees in its own laboratories, NASA would have a much broader charter that included not only aeronautical and space research but also the development and operation of various types of space vehicles, including manned vehicles. Within this new organization, the Langley Aeronautical Laboratory became the Langley Research Center of NASA.

As a part of NASA, Langley underwent many profound changes in program content, organization and management, and areas of personnel expertise. Although aeronautical research continued in the NASA era, research in support of such projects as Echo, Scout, Mercury, Apollo, and the Space Shuttle occupied a larger percentage of the Langley research effort as the years passed. In addition, Langley forged into new fields by assuming management responsibility for such large space projects as Lunar Orbiter and Viking. This responsibility involved major contract activities and support of in-house research. New research facilities, such as large vacuum tanks and high-speed and high-temperature air jets capable of simulating atmospheric entry from space, were developed and constructed. ...

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