Part One
From the Founding of NACA to the Dawn of the Space Age
January 1915—October 1957
The full history of man's exploration of space might logically begin with the legend of Icarus, or with the flight of the Wright brothers in 1903, or more appropriately with their wind tunnel experiments conducted at Dayton between September and December 1901. Or, it could begin with the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, the laws of Johannes Kepler, not to mention the contributions of the Montgolfier brothers, Sir George Cayley, Otto Lilienthal, Octave Chanute, or Count von Zeppelin.
Regarding the early interest of governments, as such, in the promotion and exploitation of aeronautics, a chronology could start with the specifications laid down by the U.S. War Department for a military "flying machine" in 1907. Two years later, the United States became the first nation in the world to possess a military airplane, the "Wright Flyer." When the international conflict erupted in the 1914-18 war in Europe, however, the relative plight of U.S. aviation as compared to war-stimulated technical progress abroad, was clearly self-evident.
This U.S. chronology begins with the year in which the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics was created. There was also geometric buildup of U.S. military and naval aviation as involvement in military conflict approached. Wartime progress in aeronautics was subsequently applied to the pursuits of peace. Rocket development was also to be stimulated in parallel fashion at a later date when military missile development created the propulsion necessary for the scientific exploration of space.
As is clearly self-evident, events in the history of scientific research and technical development are not isolated from organizational, political, military, or other general events, which are occasionally cited to remind the render of the broader historical contest, A chronology is, after all, but a mere recital of known calendar-located events and equal significance cannot be accorded all events listed in sequence.
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