Antique aircraft dynamometer NACA It was used at NACA Hampton VA to test aircraft. Start Price USD 1,100.00 Current Price USD 1,100.00 Time Left - Bid Count 0 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Wednesday, October 08, 2008 End Time Friday, November 07, 2008 Location Buckhannon WV 26201 See more about 'Antique aircraft dynamometer NACA ' Description This auction is for this antique aircraft dynamometer, sometimes called a  dynamo meter. I purchase this item for my collection years ago from the NASA tool room auction.   It was used at NACA Hampton VA to test aircraft. I have seen pictures of Army Bi-plane aircraft hanging from these dynamometers. The biplanes and first fixed wing American aircraft were torque tested in the wind tunnel, and load shops using these dynamometers.  It can be used in several different configurations.     This is truly a piece of American Aircraft History in need of a curator or keeper of this NACA cultural heritage to give it the TLC it deserves. Yes, it is being sold at auction but not because of it's value. I think it should appraise for several thousand dollars or more. However I am not sure what these items actually appraise for, and every museum has a different shopping list.  This dynamometer was used to determine the torque and power of aircraft and other engine driven equipment. A dynamometer or "dyno" for short, is a machine used to measure torque and from which power produced by an engine, motor or other rotating prime mover can be calculated.   The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was a U.S. federal agency founded on March 3, 1915 to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research. On October 1, 1958 the agency was dissolved, and its assets and personnel transferred to the newly created National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NACA was pronounced as individual letters, rather than as an acronym. NACA began as an emergency measure during World War I to promote industry/academic/government coordination on war-related projects.    Senator Benjamin R. Tillman, and House Representative Ernest W. Roberts, introduced identical resolutions recommending the creation of an advisory committee as outlined by Walcott. The purpose of the committee was "to supervise and direct the scientific study of the problems of flight with a view to their practical solution, and to determine the problems which should be experimentally attacked and to discuss their solution and their application to practical questions." Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote that he "heartily [endorsed] the principle" on which the legislation was based. Walcott then suggested the tactic of adding the resolution to the Naval Appropriations Bill. According to one source, "The enabling legislation for the NACA slipped through almost unnoticed as a rider attached to the Naval Appropriation Bill, on 3 March 1915." The committee of 12 people, all unpaid, were allocated a budget of $5,000 per year. President Woodrow Wilson signed it into law the same day, thus formally creating the Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, as it was called in the legislation, on the last day of the 63rd Congress. The act of Congress creating NACA, approved March 3, 1915, reads, "...It shall be the duty of the advisory committee for aeronautics to supervise and direct the scientific study of the problems of flight with a view to their practical solution...." On January 29, 1920, President Wilson appointed pioneering flyer and aviation engineer Orville Wright to NACA's board. By the early 1920s, it had adopted a new and more ambitious mission: to promote military and civilian aviation through applied research that looked beyond current needs. NACA researchers pursued this mission through the agency's impressive collection of in-house wind tunnels, engine test stands, and flight test facilities. Commercial and military clients were also permitted to use NACA facilities on a contract basis. Langley Research Center (LaRC) is the oldest of NASA's field centers, located in Hampton, Virginia, United States. It directly borders Poquoson, Virginia and Langley Air Force Base. LaRC focuses primarily on aeronautical research, though the Lunar Lander was flight-tested at this facility and a number of high profile space missions are planned and designed on site. Established in 1917 by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the Center currently devotes two-thirds of its programs to aeronautics, and the rest to space. LaRC researchers use more than 40 wind tunnels to study improved aircraft and spacecraft safety, performance, and efficiency. Between 1958, when NASA started Project Mercury and 1963, LaRC served as the main office of the Man-In-Space program, with the office being transferred to the Manned Spacecraft Center (now the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center) in Houston in 1962-63.In 1917, less than three years after it was created, the NACA established Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory on Langley Field. The Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps had established a base there earlier that same year. The first research facilities were in place and aeronautical research was started by 1920. Initially the laboratory included 4 researchers and 11 technicians.Langley Field and NACA began parallel growth as air power proved its utility during World War I. The center was originally established to explore the field of aerodynamic research involving airframe and propulsion engine design and performance. Early in 1943 the Center expanded to include rocket research, leading to the establishment of a flight station at Wallops Island, Virginia. A further expansion of the research program permitted Langley Research Center to orbit payloads. As rocket research grew, aeronautics research continued to expand and played an important part when subsonic flight was advanced and supersonic and hypersonic flight were introduced.NASA Langley Research Center can claim many historic firsts, some of which have proven to be revolutionary scientific breakthroughs. These accomplishments include the development of the concept of research aircraft leading to supersonic flight, the world's first transonic wind tunnels, the Lunar Landing Facility providing the simulation of lunar gravity, and the Viking program for Mars exploration Place a Bid!