THE “APOLLO” OF AERONAUTICS Copyright © 2010 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration The opinions expressed in this volume are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the United States Government or of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. THE “APOLLO” OF AERONAUTICS NASA’s Aircraft Energy Efficiency Program 1973–1987 MARK D. BOWLES National Aeronautics and Space Administration Headquarters 300 E St SW Washington, DC 20546 2010 SP-2009-574 www.nasa.gov About the Cover: Front cover: NASA Langley Research Center’s Boeing 737 test aircraft on the ramp at Orlando International Airport after a day of flight tests. (NASA Langley Research Center [NASA LaRC].) Cover design by Janine Wise. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bowles, Mark D. The “Apollo” of aeronautics : NASA’s Aircraft Energy Efficiency Program, 1973-1987 / Mark D. Bowles. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Aircraft Energy Efficiency Program (U.S.)--History. 2. Airplanes--Fuel consumption- -Research--United States--History--20th century. 3. Aerodynamics--Research--United States--History--20th century. 4. Jet engines--Research--United States--History--20th century. I. Title. TL704.7.B634 2009 629.134’35--dc22 2009046465 For Nancy, Isabelle, Emma, and Sarah Table of Contents Introduction ..............................................................................ix Chapter 1: Oil as a Weapon ........................................................................1 Chapter 2: Threads and Sails at Langley .........................................27 Chapter 3: Old and New Engines at Lewis ........................................61 Chapter 4: Aeronautics Wars at NASA ..............................................91 Chapter 5: Advanced Turboprops and Laminar Flow .................113 Epilogue: From Shock to Trance ......................................................141 About the Author ...............................................................155 Index .........................................................................................157 vii Introduction n fall 1975, 10 distinguished United States Senators from the Aeronautical and Space Sciences Committee summoned a group of eliteI aviation experts to Washington, DC. The Senators were hold- ing hearings regarding the state of the American airline industry, which was struggling in the wake of the 1973 Arab oil embargo and the dra- matically increasing cost of fuel. Providing testimony were presidents or vice presidents of United Airlines, Boeing, Pratt & Whitney, and General Electric. Other witnesses included high-ranking officials from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the U.S. Air Force, and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Their Capitol Hill testimony painted a bleak economic picture, described in phrases that included “immediate crisis condition,” “long-range trouble,” “serious danger,” and “economic dislocation.” 1 Fuel costs had recently risen from $2.59 to $11.65 for a barrel of oil and from 38.5 cents to 55.1 cents for a gallon of gasoline. While everyone knew about the increasing costs of fill- ing up his or her own automobile, the effect on commercial aviation was tak- ing a greater toll. The airlines industry furloughed over 25,000 employees in January 1974. Pan American, at the time the United States’ largest commer- cial airline, suspended service to 12 cities.2 The president of United Airlines concluded, “The economic vitality of the industry is draining away.”3 Oil was fueling America’s industrial and military might, while the majority of the world’s reserves were not under United States soil. The fuel crisis of the 1970s threatened not only the airline industry but also 1. Statement by various participants to the Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences, Nov. 4, 1975, Box 179, Division 8000, NASA Glenn archives. 2. “Airlines to Furlough 25,000 by January Due to Fuel Crisis; Pan Am Seeks Cutbacks,” Wall Street Journal, Dec. 11, 1973, p. 12. 3. Statement by Charles F. McErlean to the Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences, Nov. 4, 1975, Box 179, Division 8000, NASA Glenn archives. ix THE “APOLLO” OF AERONAUTICS the future of American prosperity itself, a situation that created a sense of panic and urgency among all Americans, from politicians on Capitol Hill to average citizens waiting in ever-longer gas lines for more expensive fuel. But the crisis also served as the genesis of technological ingenuity and innovation from a group of scientists and engineers at NASA, who initiated planning exercises to explore new fuel-saving technologies. What emerged was a series of technologically daring aeronautical programs with the potential to reduce by an astonishing 50 percent the amount of fuel used by the Nation’s commercial and military aircraft. Though the endeavor was a costly 10-year, $500-million research and development (R&D) program, the United States Senators involved proclaimed that they could not “allow this technology to lie fallow.”4 The Aircraft Energy Efficiency (ACEE) project was born. This energy crisis of the 1970s marked a turning point for the United States in a number of ways, one of which was that it changed fundamen- tally the focus of NASA’s aeronautical research. Since its establishment in 1915 (as the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) and through its transformation into NASA in 1958, the organization’s aeronautical empha- sis had been on how to research and build aircraft that would fly higher, go faster, and travel farther.5 “Higher, faster, and farther” were all visible avia- tion goals well suited for the setting of records and pushing the boundaries of engineering and piloting skill.6 According to one aviation engineer, “The dream to fly higher, faster, and farther has driven our finest engineering and science talents to achieve what many thought was impossible.”7 4. “Aircraft Fuel Efficiency Program,” Report of the Committee onAeronautical and Space Sciences of the United States Senate, Feb. 17, 1976. 5. L.W. Reithmaier, Mach 1 and Beyond: The Illustrated Guide to High-Speed Flight (New York: TAB Books, 1995), p. 189. Jeffrey L. Ethell, Fuel Economy in Aviation (Washing- ton, DC: NASA SP-462, 1983), p. 1. Stephen L. McFarland, “Higher, Faster, and Farther: Fueling the Aeronautical Revolution, 1919–45,” Innovation and the Development of Flight, Roger D. Launius, ed. (Texas: Texas A&M University Press, 1999), pp. 100–131. 6. After advances in speed, as well as airfoils, composite structures, and onboard comput- ers in the 1960s and 1970s, the “era of higher, faster, and farther in flight records was largely over.” Donald M. Pattilo, Pushing the Envelope: The American Aircraft Industry (Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 1998), p. 267. 7. Brian H. Rowe with Martin Ducheny, The Power to Fly: An Engineer’s Life (Reston, VA: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2005), p. v. x Introduction The end of the first SST era (July 1, 1973). A model of the Supersonic Transport (SST) variable sweep version, with wings in the low-speed position, mounted prior to tests in the Full Scale Wind Tunnel. (NASA Langley Research Center [NASA LaRC].) These were goals that, once achieved, could be celebrated by the pub- lic, developed by industry, and incorporated into military and commercial aviation endeavors. Sacrificing some of these capabilities in favor of fuel economy was simply unthinkable and unnecessary for roughly the first 75 years of aviation history. Fuel economy inspired no young engineers to dream impossible dreams, because fuel was simply too abundant and inexpensive to be a factor in aircraft design. One example of what Langley engineer Joseph Chambers called the “need for speed” was the effort to create a viable supersonic civil air- craft. Business and pleasure travelers wanted to get to their destinations quickly and in comfort. The fuel efficiency of the plane they rode in rarely entered their minds. As a result, when supersonic jet technology emerged for military applications in the 1950s, managers of the commercial air trans- portation system dreamed of a similar model for commercial travelers: the Supersonic Transport (SST). However, these early and rushed attempts resulted in failed programs. Chambers said that was an “ill-fated xi THE “APOLLO” OF AERONAUTICS national effort within the United States for an SST,” which was terminated in 1971.8 The oil embargo in 1973 suddenly added a new focus to the aeronau- tical agenda and caused the United States to rethink its aviation priori- ties. The mantra of “higher, faster, farther” began to take a back seat to new less glamorous but more essential goals, such as conservation and efficiency. By 1976, ACEE was fully funded. Research began immedi- ately, and it became the primary response to the Nation’s crisis in the skies. ACEE consisted of six aeronautical projects divided between two NASA Centers. Three of the projects concentrated on propulsion sys- tems, and NASA assigned its management to Lewis Research Center (now Glenn Research Center) in Cleveland, OH. These included the Engine Component Improvement project to incorporate incremental and short-term changes into existing engines to make them more efficient. The Energy Efficient Engine (E3) project was much more daring; Lewis engineers worked toward developing an entirely new engine that prom- ised significant fuel economies over existing turbine-powered jet engines. Most