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Destination Tomorrow - DT10 - NACA Fighter Pilots

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Subido el 28 de mayo de 2007 por EducaMadrid

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NASA Destination Tomorrow Segment explaining how NACA Langley's pioneering drag cleanup work saved the lives of American pilots and others around the world, and shortened the lenghth of World War II.

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When looking back at American fighter planes of World War II, an impressive record of aerial 00:00:00
victory stands out. 00:00:10
This is especially true in the later stages of the war, when American air superiority 00:00:12
dominated both the Pacific and European combat theaters. 00:00:16
But surprisingly, this was not the case in the beginning stages of the war. 00:00:20
Early American fighters could not always match the speed and maneuverability of the enemy 00:00:24
aircraft that they were facing. 00:00:28
To help find a way to improve the aircraft American pilots were flying, U.S. military 00:00:30
planners turned to NASA's predecessor, NACA, which they hoped could find a way to help 00:00:35
the United States gain air superiority over World War II's battlefields. 00:00:40
On the eve of World War II, with the prospect of war looming in the United States, military 00:00:45
planners began an exhaustive look at the preparedness and equipment that it would use to fight a 00:00:50
war. 00:00:55
One area where the United States had fallen noticeably behind to its future enemies was 00:00:56
in aircraft. 00:01:00
Many of the aircraft that U.S. pilots were flying were much slower and less maneuverable 00:01:02
than the aircraft that they would soon be facing in combat. 00:01:06
With this knowledge in hand, a concerted effort was made by the U.S. government to find ways 00:01:09
to quickly improve the American aircraft situation. 00:01:14
Since NASA's predecessor, NACA, or the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, was the 00:01:17
preeminent aeronautics lab in the country, a large part of this examination fell to them. 00:01:22
NACA researchers knew that they could improve an aircraft's performance by simply reducing 00:01:28
the amount of drag the aircraft experienced. 00:01:32
This was called drag cleanup. 00:01:35
The Navy's XF-2A Brewster Buffalo was the first of many military aircraft tested by 00:01:38
NACA in an effort to improve performance. 00:01:43
Researchers at the NACA Langley Research Center took only five days to determine several key 00:01:47
areas in which the Buffalo could be improved. 00:01:51
To the untrained eye, the Buffalo appeared aerodynamically clean. 00:01:54
However, the wind tunnel information showed a very different picture. 00:01:58
Many parts, like the gun sights, the engine cowling, and landing gear on the Buffalo, 00:02:02
protruded into the slipstream, causing increased drag, which slowed the aircraft tremendously. 00:02:07
The researchers at NACA modified these problem areas, which increased the Buffalo's speed 00:02:12
by an impressive 10 percent. 00:02:17
Such a performance improvement, without raising engine power or reducing fuel efficiency, 00:02:19
immediately caught the eye of many aircraft designers. 00:02:24
Extra speed for a fighter plane, even as little as 15 miles per hour, could determine who 00:02:27
won or lost in an aerial dogfight. 00:02:33
When Langley researchers streamlined the U.S. Navy's F-4F Wildcat, it was able to fly a 00:02:36
full 45 miles per hour faster. 00:02:42
The F-4F's successor, the F-6F Hellcat, was also streamlined, making it faster and more 00:02:45
maneuverable, able to reach a maximum speed of 375 miles per hour. 00:02:50
This extra speed proved valuable in combat, allowing Hellcat pilots to destroy nearly 00:02:55
5,000 enemy planes in aerial engagements. 00:03:00
NACA Langley proved a key stopping point for dozens of aircraft on their way to combat 00:03:06
duty in World War II. 00:03:10
In one month alone, in July 1944, 36 U.S. Army and Navy planes were evaluated in detailed 00:03:12
studies of stability, control and performance. 00:03:18
NACA Langley tested 137 different airplane types between 1941 and 1945, either in wind 00:03:22
tunnels or in flight. 00:03:29
While NACA's pioneering drag cleanup work helped save the lives of many American pilots 00:03:31
during World War II, it also shortened the war considerably and saved the lives of countless 00:03:36
others around the world. 00:03:42
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Idioma/s:
en
Niveles educativos:
▼ Mostrar / ocultar niveles
      • Nivel Intermedio
Autor/es:
NASA LaRC Office of Education
Subido por:
EducaMadrid
Licencia:
Reconocimiento - No comercial - Sin obra derivada
Visualizaciones:
438
Fecha:
28 de mayo de 2007 - 17:04
Visibilidad:
Público
Enlace Relacionado:
NASAs center for distance learning
Duración:
03′ 45″
Relación de aspecto:
4:3 Hasta 2009 fue el estándar utilizado en la televisión PAL; muchas pantallas de ordenador y televisores usan este estándar, erróneamente llamado cuadrado, cuando en la realidad es rectangular o wide.
Resolución:
480x360 píxeles
Tamaño:
21.85 MBytes

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