75 Years of Advancing Technology and Science Through FlightThe Orion space launch system’s Pad Abort 1 dummy capsule is about to launch, proving the system’s ability to pull...The F-16D Automatic Collision Avoidance Technology aircraft tests of the Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System, or Auto-GCAS, included flights in...This in-flight NACA High-Speed Flight Station photograph of the X-3 Stiletto illustrates the aircraft's long slender fuselage and the small...SOFIA’s telescope mirror is seen as it appears during a science mission.SOFIA’s 9-foot mirror is lowered into the cavity and attached to a structure sitting on a thin layer of oil...SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) primary mirror being coated in the Ames N-211 Vacuum Chamber.Technicians installing the tertiary mirror onto the SOFIA telescope.NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) Boeing 747SP flies over NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center after a ferry flight...NASA Dryden aerospace engineer Michael Allen hand-launches a model motorized sailplane during a study validating the use of heat thermals...The second X-43A hypersonic research aircraft and its modified Pegasus booster rocket accelerate after launch from NASA's B-52B launch aircraft...The AeroVironment Helios high-altitude, solar-powered aircraft flies in Kauai, Hawaii. Helios reached 96,300 feet altitude, the record for sustained, level...The F-15 Advanced Controls Technology for Integrated Vehicles, the first pre-production F-15B, shows its canards. Less obvious are the multi-axis...A J58 turbojet used in Lockheed SR-71s which NASA flew, during an engine run. The engine, anchored to the ground,...An F-16XL refuels in-flight. Only two XLs were built, and NASA eventually operated both for experimental purposes, including an active...Shuttle Atlantis emerges from the Mate-Demate-Device mounted to Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft for the return flight to Kennedy Space...NASA’s F/A-18 High Alpha Research Vehicle, also known as the “Silk Purse,” performs a thrust vectoring test in afterburner in...Here some crash test dummies are seen in the passenger cabin of the B-720 aircraft.Multiple exposure image showing wing movement on AD-1.The KC-135 with the winglets in flight over the San Gabriel mountains, south of Edwards AFB. While wind tunnel tests...NASA test pilot Bill Dana, resplendent in pink boots and pressure suit, was all smiles following the last powered flight...A TV reporter interviews NASA test pilot Bill Dana, wearing his infamous pink boots with yellow daisy decals, after the...The F-8 Digital Fly-By-Wire aircraft had its hydro-mechanical control systems replaced by an Apollo Guidance Computer for the first such...The F-111B with its wings swept to their maximum angle. It carried the Mission Adaptive Wing, a single-piece composite structure...Armstrong research pilot (and future center director) John Manke emerges from the HL-10, NASA Langley’s 10th horizontal lander (lifting body).The North American Aviation XB-70 triple-sonic bomber prototype aircraft No. 1. NASA used the pre-production bomber for high-speed research in...Mechanics are dressed in fire suits because the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle, a simulator to train astronauts for a moon...The M2-F1 following a hard landing on Rogers Dry Lake in 1963. It hit the lakebed so hard the rolling...As crew members secure the X-15 rocket-powered aircraft after a research flight, the B-52 mothership used for launching this unique...Behind three Douglas D-558-IIs is the B-29 launch aircraft. Under its right wing is the world’s first ground-based reaction control...The XF-92A, which had a minor landing mishap in 1953, was the concept for the first delta wing fighter in...