Langley's human computers at work in 1947. The female presence at Langley, who performed mathematical computations for male staff. Bell computers.

Langley's human computers at work in 1947. The female presence at Langley, who performed mathematical computations for male staff. Bell computers.

Langley's human computers at work in 1947. The female presence at Langley, who performed mathematical computations for male staff. Bell computers.

Langley's human computers at work in 1947. The female presence at Langley, who performed mathematical computations for male staff. Bell computers.

Langley's human computers at work in 1947. The female presence at Langley, who performed mathematical computations for male staff. Bell computers.

Langley's human computers at work in 1947. The female presence at Langley, who performed mathematical computations for male staff. Bell computers.

Langley's human computers at work in 1947. The female presence at Langley, who performed mathematical computations for male staff. Bell computers.

Publicity Photos of Bell Computing Machines at 19 Foot Pressure Tunnel Mrs. Doris Rudd Porter Baron photographed in the photos.

Publicity Photos of Bell Computing Machines at 19 Foot Pressure Tunnel Mrs. Doris Rudd Porter Baron photographed in the photos.

Publicity Photos of Bell Computing Machines at 19 Foot Pressure Tunnel Mrs. Doris Rudd Porter Baron photographed in the photos.

Publicity Photos of Bell Computing Machines at 19 Foot Pressure Tunnel Mrs. Doris Rudd Porter Baron photographed in the photos.

Publicity Photos of Bell Computing Machines at 19 Foot Pressure Tunnel Mrs. Doris Rudd Porter Baron photographed in the photos.

Publicity Photos of Bell Computing Machines at 19 Foot Pressure Tunnel Mrs. Doris Rudd Porter Baron photographed in the photos.

Langley's human computers at work in 1947. The female presence at Langley, who performed mathematical computations for male staff. -- Photograph published in Winds of Change, 75th Anniversary NASA publication (page 48), by James Schultz.

Women Adequately Filling Posts In NACA Laboratory: Mrs. Doris Rudd Porter Baron handling Manometertape, Bell computer.

JSC2009-E-214334 (25 Sept. 2009) --- NASA astronaut Clayton Anderson, STS-131 mission specialist, uses virtual reality hardware in the Space Vehicle Mock-up Facility at NASA's Johnson Space Center to rehearse some of his duties on the upcoming mission to the International Space Station. This type of virtual reality training allows the astronauts to wear a helmet and special gloves while looking at computer displays simulating actual movements around the various locations on the station hardware with which they will be working. Crew instructor Bradley Bell assisted Anderson.

JSC2010-E-043658 (25 March 2010) --- NASA astronaut Greg Chamitoff, STS-134 mission specialist, prepares to use virtual reality hardware in the Space Vehicle Mock-up Facility at NASA's Johnson Space Center to rehearse some of his duties on the upcoming mission to the International Space Station. This type of virtual reality training allows the astronauts to wear a helmet and special gloves while looking at computer displays simulating actual movements around the various locations on the station hardware with which they will be working. Crew instructor Bradley Bell assisted Chamitoff.

NASA Lewis Research Center researcher, John S. Sarafini, uses a laser doppler velocimeter to analyze a Hamilton Standard SR-2 turboprop design in the 8- by 6-Foot foot Supersonic Wind Tunnel. Lewis researchers were analyzing a series of eight-bladed propellers in their wind tunnels to determine their operating characteristics at speeds up to Mach 0.8. The program, which became the Advanced Turboprop (ATP), was part of a NASA-wide Aircraft Energy Efficiency Program undertaken to reduce aircraft fuel costs by 50 percent. The ATP concept was different from the turboprops in use in the 1950s. The modern versions had at least eight blades and were swept back for better performance. Bell Laboratories developed the laser doppler velocimeter technology in the 1960s to measure velocity of transparent fluid flows or vibration motion on reflective surfaces. Lewis researchers modified the device to measure the flow field of turboprop configurations in the transonic speed region. The modifications were necessary to overcome the turboprop’s vibration and noise levels. The laser beam was split into two beams which were crossed at a specific point. This permits researchers to measure two velocity components simultaneously. This data measures speeds both ahead and behind the propeller blades. Researchers could use this information as they sought to advance flow fields and to verify computer modeling codes.

This photo of the X-1A includes graphs of the flight data from Maj. Charles E. Yeager's Mach 2.44 flight on December 12, 1953. (This was only a few days short of the 50th anniversary of the Wright brothers' first powered flight.) After reaching Mach 2.44, then the highest speed ever reached by a piloted aircraft, the X-1A tumbled completely out of control. The motions were so violent that Yeager cracked the plastic canopy with his helmet. He finally recovered from a inverted spin and landed on Rogers Dry Lakebed. Among the data shown are Mach number and altitude (the two top graphs). The speed and altitude changes due to the tumble are visible as jagged lines. The third graph from the bottom shows the G-forces on the airplane. During the tumble, these twice reached 8 Gs or 8 times the normal pull of gravity at sea level. (At these G forces, a 200-pound human would, in effect, weigh 1,600 pounds if a scale were placed under him in the direction of the force vector.) Producing these graphs was a slow, difficult process. The raw data from on-board instrumentation recorded on oscillograph film. Human computers then reduced the data and recorded it on data sheets, correcting for such factors as temperature and instrument errors. They used adding machines or slide rules for their calculations, pocket calculators being 20 years in the future.