Early Transonic and Supersonic Research Approaches

The NACA’s applied research was initially restricted to wind tunnel work. The wind tunnels had their own problems with supersonic flow, as shock waves formed and disturbed the flow, thus casting doubt on the model test results. This was especially true in the transonic regime, from Mach

0. 8 to 1.2, at which the shock waves were the strongest as the super­sonic flow slowed to subsonic in one single step; this was called a "nor­mal” shock, referring to the 90-degree angle of the shock wave to the vehicle motion. Free air experiments were necessary to validate and improve wind tunnel results. John Stack at NACA Langley developed a slotted wind tunnel that promised to reduce some of the flow irregu­larities. The Collier Trophy was awarded for this accomplishment, but validation of the supersonic tunnel results was still lacking. Pending the development of higher-powered engines for full-scale in-flight experi­ments, initial experimentation included attaching small wing shapes to NACA P-51 Mustangs, which then performed high-speed dives to and beyond their critical Mach numbers, allowing seconds of transonic
data collection. Heavy streamlined bomb shapes were released from NACA B-29s, the shapes going supersonic during their 30-45-second trajectories, sending pressure data to the ground via telemetry before impact.[1055] Supersonic rocket boosters were fired from the NACA facil­ity at Wallops Island, VA, carrying wind tunnel-sized models of wings and proposed aircraft configurations in order to gain research data, a test method that remained fruitful well into the 1960s. The NACA and the United States Air Force (USAF) formed a joint full-scale flight-test program of a supersonic rocket-powered airplane, the Bell XS-1 (subse­quently redesignated the X-1), which was patterned after a supersonic

0. 50-caliber machine gun projectile with thin wings and tail surfaces. The program culminated October 14, 1947, with the demonstration of a controllable aircraft that exceeded the speed of sound in level flight. The news media of the day hailed the breaking of the "sound barrier,” which would lead to ever-faster airplanes in the future. Speed records popularized in the press since the birth of aviation were "made to be broken”; now, the speed of sound was no longer the limit.

But the XS-1 flight in October was no more a practical solution to supersonic flight than the Wright brothers’ flights at Kitty Hawk in December 1903 were a director predecessor to transcontinental passen­ger flights. Rockets could produce the thrust necessary to overcome the drag of supersonic shock waves, but the thrust was of limited duration. Rocket motors of the era produced the greatest thrust per pound of engine, but they were dangerous and expensive, could not be throttled directly, and consumed a lot of fuel in a short time. Sustained supersonic flight would require a more fuel-efficient motor. The turbojet was an obvious choice, but in 1947, it was in its infancy and was relatively ineffi­cient, being heavy and producing only (at most) several thousand pounds of static thrust. Military-sponsored research continued on improving the efficiency and the thrust levels, leading to the introduction of after­burners, which would increase thrust from 10-30 percent, but at the expense of fuel flows, which doubled to quadrupled that of the more normal subsonic cruise settings. The NACA and manufacturers looked at another form of jet propulsion, the ramjet, which did away with the complex rotating compressors and turbines and relied on forward speed of the vehicle to compress the airflow into an inlet/diffuser, where fuel

would then be injected and combusted, with the exhaust nozzle further increasing the thrust.