United States Government Printing Office, Washington. 1928. Original edition.
Hardcover, Brown cloth, spine title, quarto, viii, [2], 510 pages.

An important volume summarizing developments in aviation, NACA activities during 1927 as well as technical reports documenting important research and development efforts including contributions by aviation pioneers Eastman N. Jacobs , et al.

See below for the full Table of Contents and selected biographies.


The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was a United States federal agency founded on March 3, 1915, to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research. On October 1, 1958, the agency was dissolved and its assets and personnel transferred to the newly created National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Among other advancements, NACA research and development produced the NACA duct, a type of air intake used in modern automotive applications, the NACA cowling, and several series of NACA airfoils which are still used in aircraft manufacturing.

During World War II, NACA was described as "The Force Behind Our Air Supremacy" due to its key role in producing working superchargers for high altitude bombers, and for producing the laminar wing profiles for the North American P-51 Mustang.[3] NACA was also key in developing the area rule that is used on all modern supersonic aircraft, and conducted the key compressibility research that enabled the Bell X-1 to break the sound barrier.

Research
On January 29, 1920, President Wilson appointed pioneering flier and aviation engineer Orville Wright to NACA's board. By the early 1920s, it had adopted a new and more ambitious mission: to promote military and civilian aviation through applied research that looked beyond current needs. NACA researchers pursued this mission through the agency's impressive collection of in-house wind tunnels, engine test stands, and flight test facilities. Commercial and military clients were also permitted to use NACA facilities on a contract basis.

Facilities Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory (Hampton, Virginia)
Ames Aeronautical Laboratory (Moffett Field)
Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory (Lewis Research Center)
Muroc Flight Test Unit (Edwards Air Force Base)

In 1922, NACA had 100 employees. By 1938, it had 426. In addition to formal assignments, staff were encouraged to pursue unauthorized "bootleg" research, provided that it was not too exotic. The result was a long string of fundamental breakthroughs, including "thin airfoil theory" (1920s), "NACA engine cowl" (1930s), the "NACA airfoil" series (1940s), and the "area rule" for supersonic aircraft (1950s).

Eastman Jacobs Eastman Jacobs (1902–1987) was a leading aerodynamicist who worked for NACA's Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory (renamed NASA Langley Research Center in 1958) from the 1920s to the 1940s. He was responsible for advancing many fields in aerodynamics, dealing particularly with wind tunnels, airfoils, turbulence, boundary layers, and Schlieren photography.

Biography
Eastman Jacobs joined NACA in 1925 after earning a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. He applied at the Bell Labs but was not accepted and opted for his second choice Langley. His knowledge of complex analysis was key to current airfoil design techniques at the time.[1] He quickly became one of the leading scientists at the Langley Research Center due to his work with optimizing airfoils using a variable density wind tunnel that could operate with high Reynolds numbers. He was also officially the head of the Variable Density Wind Tunnel Division from 1928-1939. He and his colleagues were able to significantly reduce the turbulence in the wind tunnel, which led to a better understanding of boundary development around airfoil sections. A better knowledge of boundary layer growth then led to an optimization scheme for low-drag laminar flow airfoils. This optimization scheme produced the NACA 4-digit[2] airfoils that led to faster aircraft like the P-51 Mustang in World War II. In 1937, he received the Sylvanus Albert Reed Award for his improvement of airfoils.

By the 1930s, Jacobs became interested in high-speed wind tunnels, and helped to build one of the first in the United States. He became the first person to observe a shock wave propagating over an airfoil using Schlieren photography. In 1935, he was invited to the now famous fifth Volta conference on aerodynamics titled "High Velocities in Aviation". There, he gave a presentation on high-speed wind tunnels and his Schlieren images which exposed the technology to the rest of the world.

Later in his career, he designed a motorjet aircraft referred to "Jake's Jeep", but this work was canceled by the NACA. He retired at an early age of 42 in 1944.

A restaurant he started in 1958, called "Panorama Pacific at Solimar," on his property near the Pacific Coast Highway on the Ventura-Los Angeles county line in Malibu, became known throughout the 1960s as "Jake's Diner." The restaurant survives today as "Neptune's Net". Jacobs died on Father's Day in 1987 and his ashes were spread on his ranch property.[3]

Awards
Wright Brothers Medal – 1933

CONDITION: Ex university library reference copy in Very Good- condtion. (Covers have shelfwear, some corner wear, light soil, rubbing on spine. Library labels on front pastedown and stamp on front endpaper, title page and first text page, surface tear on rear pastedown. The tightly bound Contents are complete, clean and intact except for light foxing spots on a few preliminary pages.)