Pursuit of Power: NASA's Propulsion Systems Laboratory No. 1 and 2

As the Sun set on a pleasant late September evening in 1952, the exterior lights of the new Propulsion Systems Laboratory (PSL) were illuminated. A photographer and his assistant set up their tripod and camera at several locations around the facility, attempting to capture the sprawling tangle of steel, pipes, and valves. By the time that they had made it across the street to snap the two wide-angle shots, darkness had fallen and the most modern engine testing facility in the country shone brightly against the night sky over the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory in Cleveland, Ohio. There were others gazing into the Midwestern darkness that evening. The Cold War had firmly taken root, and world tensions were elevated. Local teams of " skywatchers " from the Ground Observation Corps were scanning the night sky for enemy aircraft. The range and destructiveness of weaponry had increased dramatically in the 11 years since Pearl Harbor. " For the first time in our history, " one NACA Lewis sky-watcher declared, " a potential enemy has the power to make sudden, devastating attacks on any part of our country. " 1 In just weeks, United Nations forces would launch the ill-fated Battle of Triangle Hill—the last major offensive of the Korean War; General Dwight Eisenhower would be elected President, and the first hydrogen bomb would be detonated in the Marshall Islands. Aerospace development also was advancing dramatically. Jet engines were demonstrating tremendous increases in power, U.S. and Soviet engineers were racing to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles, and Harvey van Allen was beginning to circulate his blunt-body theory for atmospheric reentry. In addition, the International Geophysical Year had been set for 1957, and Colliers had captivated the public' s imagination with a cover story titled " Man on the Moon. " 2 In Cleveland, construction of the PSL, the nation' s largest facility for testing full-scale engines in simulated flight conditions, was completed. As the photographers documented the shining exterior on that September evening, a ramjet for the Navaho Missile program and a General Electric J73 turbojet for the F86H Sabre fighter were being installed inside its two test chambers. There were several ways to test engines, but test stands provided the most efficient and useful method. A single stand could be used to study many types of engines in an environment that was safer and more efficient …

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