Probing the Sky: Selected NACA Research Airplanes and Their Contributions to Flight

by Curtis Peebles, Richard P. Hallion

In the decades since the Wright brothers' first flights, a body of knowledge and tools, created in an evolutionary process of small steps, had been built up to guide engineers and researchers in developing new aircraft. The early wood-and-fabric biplanes had given way to all-metal monoplanes. Aircraft size, range, and payload had also grown, until the oceans could be spanned in a fraction of the time a ship would take. Speed became the critical factor in both commercial and military operations.

334 pages, ebook

Published December 10, 2014

Reviews

[Paul Kinzer · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very detailed, but extremely dry operational history of the first X-planes, primarily X1 through X5, during the early 1950's. Not an uninteresting book, probably good for reference, but more detail than I needed. Includes quite a bit of insight into the NACA.