A CONVINCING CASE

After three months of investigations, the Becker group believed that the development of a Mach 7 research aircraft was feasible. Those at NACA Headquarters who followed the progress of their work, as well as the parallel work on hypersonic aircraft concepts at the other NACA laboratories, agreed. It was time to formally present the results to the NACA upper echelon and the Department of Defense.-11^

The preliminary specifications for the research airplane were surprisingly brief: only four pages of requirements, plus six additional pages of supporting data. As John Becker subsequently observed, "it was obviously impossible that the proposed aircraft be in any sense an optimum hypersonic configuration." Nevertheless, Langley believed the design would work. At the same time, a new sense of urgency was present: "As the need for the exploratory data is acute because of the rapid advance of the performance of service [military] aircraft, the minimum practical and reliable airplane is required in order that the development and construction time be kept to a minimum." In other versions of the requirements, this was even more specific: "It shall be possible to design and construct the airplane within 3 years." The researchers were nothing if not ambitious.11^

On 4 May 1954, Hugh Dryden sent a letter to Lieutenant General Donald L. Putt at Air Force Headquarters stating that the NACA wanted to initiate a new manned hypersonic research aircraft program. The letter suggested a meeting between the NACA, Air Force Headquarters, and the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board to discuss the project. Putt responded favorably and recommended inviting the Navy as well. The general also noted that "the Scientific Advisory Board has done some thinking in this area and has formally recommended that the Air Force initiate action on such a program." On 11 June 1954, Dryden sent letters to the Air Force and Navy inviting them to a meeting on 9 July 1954 at NACA Headquarters.117

Attendees included Clark Millikan, Ezra Kotcher from the WADC, and a variety of Air Force and Navy technical representatives. The Air Research and Development Command (ARDC) and Air Force Headquarters also sent policy representatives. During the meeting, Hartley Soule and Walt Williams reviewed the history of previous research airplanes. Hugh Dryden reported the reasons why the NACA believed a new research aircraft was desirable, and said the time had come to determine whether an agreement existed on the objectives and scope of such a project. Dryden emphasized the need for information on full-scale structural heating and on stability and control issues at high speeds and high altitudes. He also indicated that the NACA thought that actual flight-testing combined with theoretical studies and wind-tunnel experiments produced the best results. The Langley study became the starting point for further discussions since it was the most detailed available, with John Becker and John Duberg, who was substituting for Norris Dow, leading the discussions.-118

Those in attendance were in general agreement that a new project was feasible. However, Hugh Dryden, reflecting what John Becker described as "his natural conservatism," stated that the fact it was feasible to build such a research airplane did not necessarily make it worth building; he wanted further study before deciding. The Navy representative indicated that some "military objective" should be included in the program, but Clark Millikan stressed the need for a dedicated research airplane rather than any sort of tactical prototype. The group agreed the performance parameters discussed by the Langley study represented an adequate increment over existing research airplanes, and that a cooperative program would be more cost-effective and more likely to provide better research data at an earlier time. The meeting closed with an agreement that the military would continue studying the NACA proposal, and that Hugh Dryden would seek Department of Defense approval for the project.119

Unexpectedly, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) announced at the meeting that it had already contracted with the Douglas Aircraft Company to investigate a manned vehicle capable of achieving 1,000,000 feet altitude and very high speeds. The configuration evolved by Douglas "did not constitute a detailed design proposal," but was only a "first approach to the problem of a high-altitude high-speed research airplane." Representatives from the NACA agreed to meet with their ONR counterparts on 16 July to further discuss the Douglas study.