Skip to main content

Aerospace & Aviation

Rocketdyne's_test_stand_for_testing_the_J-2_engine_in_Santa_Susana_Mountains
Society: AIAAMain Category: Aerospace & AviationSub Category: AerospaceEra: 1950sDateCreated: 1947Santa Susana Field LaboratoryBrandeisState: CACountry: USAWebsite: https://www.aiaa.org/HistoricAerospaceSites/

On 15 November 1950, the SSFL conducted its first official test with a Rocketdyne-designed XLR43-NA-1 large liquid propellant rocket engine, which later became the Redstone engine.  Encompassing 2558 acres, 18 large static test stands, 5 component test laboratories and an advanced test facility, the SSFL and its dedicated employees have provided significant contributions to U.S. rocketry and space programs for over 50 years.

YearAdded:
2001
Image Caption: Rocketdyne's test stand for testing the J-2 engine in Santa Susana Mountains, 1963
Picatinny Arsenal
Society: AIAAMain Category: Aerospace & AviationSub Category: ManufacturingEra: 1880sDateCreated: 1880Picatinny ArsenalWhartonState: NJCountry: USAWebsite: http://www.newjerseyhills.com/historic-aerospace-designation-awarded-to-picatinny-arsenal/article_8372debc-a6a3-5d90-b45b-fa72038510f4.html, https://www.aiaa.org/Creator: U.S. War Department

Built in 1880 as the Piccatinny Powder Depot, this site was the major supplier of smokeless powder to the military for many years.

YearAdded:
2006
James Hart Wyld
Society: AIAAMain Category: Aerospace & AviationSub Category: Frontiers of KnowledgeEra: 1930sDateCreated: 1930sDenvilleState: NJCountry: USAWebsite: https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/book/10.2514/4.104428Creator: Wyld, James Hart, Lovell Lawrence, Pendray, George Edward, Pierce, Hugh, Shesta, John

The first company in the United States dedicated solely to the production of the liquid rocket engine, Reaction Motors, Inc. (RMI) was formed in 1941.  Its four founders were rocket enthusiasts and members of the American Rocket Society. RMI developed the rocket motors that powered the first supersonic flight, that of the X-1; the retro rockets for five NASA surveyor lunar soft landers; and prepackaged liquid rocket engines for the U.S. Navy Bullpup A & B air to ground missiles, among many other pioneering programs.

YearAdded:
2004
Image Credit: Courtesy Smithsonian InstitutionImage Caption: James Wyld, one of the RMI founders, holding a rocket motor at an ARS test in Midvale, New Jersey, 1941.
Oakland Airport Modern Aerial View
Society: AIAAMain Category: Aerospace & AviationSub Category: Air and Space TransportationEra: 1920-1929DateCreated: 19251 Airport DrOaklandState: CACountry: USAWebsite: https://info.aiaa.org/tac/ETMG/HISTC/Shared%20Documents/Historic%20Aerospace%20Sites%20(HAS)/Procedures%20and%20templates/Sites-by-state-plaque-wording.doc

This site, formerly known as Oakland Municipal Airport, served as the gateway to the Pacific during aviation’s pioneering age of trans-Pacific flight. Among other notable events, Albert Hegenberger and Lester Maitland departed from the airfield on 28 June 1927 on the first flight from the mainland to Hawaii, and Amelia Earhart landed here on 13 January 1935, completing the first-ever solo flight from Hawaii to the mainland.

YearAdded:
2002
Image Caption: Modern Oakland Municipal Airport aerial view
 Dr. Robert H. Goddard and a liquid oxygen-gasoline rocket at Auburn, Massachusetts.
Society: AIAAMain Category: Aerospace & AviationSub Category: AerospaceEra: 1920-1929DateCreated: 192620 Upland StreetAuburnState: MACountry: USAWebsite: https://www.aiaa.org/uploadedFiles/Education_and_Careers/STEM_K-12_Outreach/Kids_Place/Rockets_Activities/Pop%20Rockets%20Activity%5B1%5D.pdfCreator: Goddard, Dr. Robert H.

On March 16, 1926 Dr. Robert H. Goddard, also known as "the father of modern rocketry," launched the world’s first liquid propellant rocket from a point 1000 feet S.S.E. of the plaque on the property of the Asa M. Ward Family.  Erected by the American Rocket Society July 13, 1960 in recognition of this significant achievement in the evolution of astronautics.

YearAdded:
2000
Image Caption: Dr. Robert H. Goddard and a liquid oxygen-gasoline rocket at Auburn, Massachusetts
NASA’s Stennis Space Center.
Society: AIAAMain Category: Aerospace & AviationSub Category: AerospaceEra: 1960sDateCreated: 19611100 Belch BoulevardState: MSCountry: USAWebsite: https://images.nasa.gov/details-SSC-20080410-S00695H.html

This rocket propulsion test complex was created to flight-certify all first and second stages of the Apollo Saturn V rocket.  The first test-firing occurred on April 23, 1966. Subsequent to the Apollo Program, these test stands were modified to support the testing requirements of the Space Shuttle Main Engine.  Every astronaut who traveled to the moon aboard Saturn V Rockets and into space aboard the Space Shuttle, did so on rocket stages and engines that were first proven flight-worthy on these test stands.

YearAdded:
2007
Image Caption: J-2X Engine No. 10002 is test fired for the final time on the A-1 test stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center.
The Cincinnati Observatory
Society: AIAAMain Category: Aerospace & AviationSub Category: AstronomyEra: 1840-1849DateCreated: 18423489 Observatory PlCincinnatiState: OHCountry: USAWebsite: https://www.aiaa.org/uploadedFiles/About-AIAA/Governance/GovernanceDocs/AnnualReports/AIAA_AnnualReport_2007-2008.pdf

The Cincinnati Observatory, “The Birthplace of American  Astronomy,” is the oldest professional observatory in the United States.  Ormsby MacKnight Mitchel, the “Father of American Astronomy,” founded the  observatory in 1842.  John Quincy Adams laid the cornerstone  for the observatory on Mt. Ida, later renamed Mt. Adams. The  original Merz und Mahler 11-inch refractor telescope was put into service  in 1845 and is still in use here today on Mount Lookout.

Image Credit: Courtesy Wikicommons/Joe D. Good (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Lunken Field
Society: AIAAMain Category: Aerospace & AviationSub Category: Air and Space TransportationEra: 1920sDateCreated: 1925Cincinnati Municipal Lunken AirportCincinnatiState: OHCountry: USAWebsite: https://www.aiaa.org/SecondaryTwoColumn.aspx?id=19528

Lunken Field, now also known as Cincinnati Municipal Lunken Airport, opened in 1925 on ground purchased from the Cincinnati Polo Club. The nation’s largest municipal airport at the time, it attracted several aerospace enterprises, starting with early aviator J. Richard “Dixie” Davis, who established his barnstorming enterprise there in 1925.  In 1928, several other firms established enterprises at the field – each making history.

YearAdded:
2012
Image Credit: Courtesy Wikicommons/redlegsfan21 (CC BY-SA 2.0)Image Caption: Cincinnati Municipal Airport – Lunken Field
Hobby 1940 Air Terminal
Society: AIAAMain Category: Aerospace & AviationSub Category: Air and Space TransportationEra: 1930sWilliam P. Hobby AirportHoustonState: TXCountry: USAWebsite: http://www.aiaahouston.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Horizons_2013_01_and_02_pg_26_The_1940_Air_Terminal.pdfCreator: Joseph Finger

The 1940 Air Terminal is a beautiful and rare example of classic art deco airport architecture from the golden age of flight. Designed by noted architect Joseph Finger, the Terminal was built to meet Houston’s growing role as a major center for air commerce in the 1930s. Its grand opening by the City of Houston took place on September 28, 1940, at Houston Municipal Airport, now known as Hobby Airport.

YearAdded:
2008
Image Credit: Courtesy Wikicommons/Mlickliter (CC BY-SA 3.0)Image Caption: The 1940 Air Terminal Museum
Launch of a Skylark sounding rocket from Woomera in South Australia
Society: AIAAMain Category: Aerospace & AviationSub Category: AviationEra: 1940-1949RAAF Woomera Range ComplexWoomeraCountry: AustraliaWebsite: http://www.aiaa.org/AerospaceAmericaDecember2017/Creator: Royal Australian Air Force

Long Range Weapon Establishment

YearAdded:
2007
Image Caption: Launch of a Skylark sounding rocket from Woomera in South Australia
Subscribe to Aerospace & Aviation

Innovations

Tracing its history to the earliest days of powered flight – to the Wright brothers and Glenn Curtiss – the site began as the research laboratory of the Curtiss-Wright Aircraft Company. After World War II, it was donated to Cornell University, and in January 1946 opened its doors as the Cornell…

Read More
Link C-3 Flight Trainer

During the 1920s, Edwin A. Link was employed in his father's organ building and repair business. He obtained his pilot's license in 1927 and became convinced that a mechanical device could be built as an inexpensive method to teach basic piloting. Link received three patents on his flight…

Read More
Hydromatic Propeller

Rapid development of aircraft design in the 1930s required many related innovations, including propeller design. The hydromatic propeller by Hamilton Standard marked a significant advance over the counterweight-type, controllable pitch propeller. The first test flight of the prototype took place…

Read More
The 367-80 is the prototype for most jet transports. Its success was due largely to its mechanical systems, including turbine engines with thrust reversers and noise suppressors, redundant hydraulic control systems, and an improved cabin-pressurization system. Honeycomb flap panels were introduced… Read More
This propulsion wind tunnel (PWT) at Arnold AFB was the first large-scale facility for testing jet and rocket engines in simulated high-speed flight conditions. It has a unique combination of transonic (1955) and supersonic (1960) wind tunnels using a common 236,000 horsepower drive, the world's… Read More
RL-10 Rocket Engine

The RL-10, which served as the power plant for NASA's upper-stage Centaur space launch vehicle, was the first rocket engine to use high-energy liquid hydrogen as a fuel. It has provided precisely controlled, reliable power for lunar and planetary explorations. The RL-10 embodied numerous…

Read More
Pegasus 3 Engine BS 916

The Pegasus 3 is the earliest surviving example of the prototype engine for vertical/short takeoff and landing (V/STOL) jets, namely the Royal Air Force's Harriers and US Marine Corps' AV-8Bs. Owned by the Rolls- Royce Heritage Trust (a company-sponsored history and preservation society), the…

Read More
Saturn V Rocket

The largest rocket built at the time of the historic first missions to the moon, the Saturn V carried aloft the 45-ton Apollo spacecraft on earth orbital and lunar missions from 1967 to 1972. It also launched the 120-ton Skylab into earth orbit on May 14, 1973. 

Design and…

Read More
First Aerojet Manufacturing Site

On Colorado Blvd in Pasadena in 1942, the Aerojet Engineering Company founded the first manufacturing facility for the production of rocket propulsion systems. This site was selected to be honored by AIAA because of its significance as one of the first production sites for rocket motors, laying…

Read More

New Innovation gateway

 On 19 August, the AIAA Historic Aerospace Sites Committee dedicated Kitty Hawk, NC, as a historic aerospace site, following a decades-long negotiation with the U.S Park Service. A historic marker was unveiled at a 0930 hrs ceremony as part of the First Flight Society’s National Aviation Day at…

Read More
Bell Aircraft Corporation's main factory

Bell Aircraft, founded in 1935 by Lawrence Dale “Larry” Bell, based its primary manufacturing facility in Wheatfield, New York, where several important aircraft were designed and produced. During the World War II era, the plant produced the P-39 Airacobra and the P-63 Kingcobra fighters. The P-…

Read More
Pearson Field

Pearson Field, named for U.S. Army Lt. Alexander Pearson Jr., a prominent early aviator who died in an airplane crash in 1925, is the oldest continuously operating airfield in the Pacific Northwest, and one of the oldest in the United States. In 1905, the field, then known as the Fort Vancouver…

Read More
airport of Getafe

Getafe Airfield was the site of the world’s first successful rotorcraft flight, on January 17, 1923. Lieutenant Alejandro Gómez Spencer piloted a C.4 Autogiro designed and built by Juan de la Cierva, who tested a series of autogiros between 1920 and 1924 at the Getafe site. Cierva’s autogiros…

Read More
silver dart airborn

AIAA designated Baddeck, Nova Scotia as a historic site, providing a plaque to commemorate the centennial of the first powered flight in Canada. On February 23, 1909, piloting the “Silver Dart,” J.A. Douglas McCurdy took off from the frozen surface of Bras d’Or Lake at Baddeck Bay, and flew for…

Read More
Sikorsky VS-300

Igor I. Sikorsky, engineering manager of the Vought – Sikorsky Division of the former United Aircraft Corporation, used the Stratford, Conn., sites to design, build, and test his innovative helicopter designs. Sikorsky’s VS-300 model…

Read More
Point Mugu Aerial

Established in 1946 to provide a comprehensive test and evaluation site for tactical missiles, Point Mugu has been instrumental in the development, test, evaluation and in-service support of systems including Regulus, Sparrow, Phoenix, Bullpup, Harpoon, SLAM, Tomahawk, Standard, and Rolling…

Read More
Huffman Prairie

On this 84-acre meadow in 1904 and 1905, the Wright Brothers successfully mastered the mechanics of controlled, powered, heavier-than-air flight. The brothers also built the world’s first airport here, and in 1910 the Wright Company School of Aviation established a flying school on…

Read More
The Boeing Red Barn taken in 1937

This former shipyard was the first home of the The Boeing Company, founded in 1916.  Affectionately called the Red Barn, this structure was built in 1909, and became the historic birthplace of Boeing aircraft production. Starting with the Boeing Model C, all early Boeing production…

Read More
Alberto Santos-Dumont

Born 20 July 1873 in the state of Sao Paolo, Alberto Santos Dumont moved to Paris in 1891 but never forgot his birthplace. He soon began experimenting with flying, and designed his first balloon, the Brasil, in 1898. He later built and flew 11 dirigibles, including the…

Read More

We hope you enjoyed this essay.

Please support America's only magazine of the history of engineering and innovation, and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to Invention & Technology.

Donate

Stay informed - subscribe to our newsletter.
The subscriber's email address.