On 9 August 1939, as World War II began, Congress authorized the construction of a second National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) laboratory for urgent research in aircraft structures. Ground was broken for the laboratory at Moffett Field, California, in December 1939 and operations began in early 1941. NACA named the facility “Ames Aeronautical Laboratory” in 1944 in honor of Dr. Joseph S. Ames, leading aerodynamicist and former president of Johns Hopkins University.

Wind tunnels are central to Ames’ history. Several wind tunnels were opened in the 1940s to test and refine aircraft, guided missiles, satellites, and reentry bodies. Of particular note are three tunnels later designated key national resources. The 40 x 80-foot wind tunnel opened in June 1944 to conduct aircraft development work. The 12-foot subsonic wind tunnel, opened in July 1946. The Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel enabled Ames to conduct new research; almost all NASA manned space vehicles, including the Space Shuttle, were tested in the Unitary.

In the 1970s through the 1990s, all three facilities were renovated. Ames added an 80 x 120-foot tunnel to the 40 x 80-foot tunnel, renamed it the National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex (NFAC), and dedicated it in 1987. The 12-foot pressure tunnel was rebuilt in the 1980s, and rededicated in 1995. The workhorse Unitary received multiple upgrades in the 1990s. Today, only the Unitary is still in regular use.

In 1958, Ames became part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Ames’ most vital input to NASA’s top priority, the lunar program, was the blunt body concept for reentry capsules, a concept tested and refined in the Center’s new arc jet facilities and hypervelocity ranges. The arcjets contributed to thermal protection for all NASA’s crewed programs, including the Space Shuttle, and also for planetary missions, e.g., the Galileo mission’s Jupiter probe. The complex will continue to be central to the research and development of materials suitable for heatshield applications.

In the 1960s, Ames emerged as a leading builder of flight simulators. In particular, in 1969 the Flight Simulator for Advanced Aircraft became part of a wide range of simulators, equipment, and facilities developed by Ames to improve pilot workloads, cockpit design, and safety, among other things. Another, the Vertical Motion Simulator, still enables testing of a variety of aircraft and the Space Shuttle.

Ames’ longstanding life sciences program conducts research in various centrifuges, two of them unique to the agency, and genome facilities. In addition, Ames took major new strides in supercomputing in 2004 with the Project Columbia facility, which will present researchers with unprecedented computing capabilities. Ames’ continuing interest in aviation safety manifests itself in a variety of advanced simulators and facilities, among them Future Flight Central, a sophisticated facility for basic research on movement into and around airports. The Center still pursues human factors studies in the Human Performance Research Laboratory (1990), and advanced aerospace technology applications in the Automation Sciences Research Facility (1992).

In the 1990s, Ames began to undertake different kinds of research, requiring different kinds of facilities. Its nanotechnology laboratories will help revolutionize space exploration by reducing mass while increasing capability. The Center’s Astrobiology facilities include a world-renowned Astrochemistry laboratory to simulate deep space, the world’s only living bio-mat greenhouse laboratory to study Earth’s earliest living organisms, and bio-signature labs.

Additional resources about Ames Research Center:

Hartman, Edwin, P. Adventures in Research: A History of Ames Research Center, 1940-1965. NASA SP-4302, 1970.
Muenger, Elizabeth A. Searching the Horizon: A History of Ames Research Center, 1940-1976. NASA SP-4304, 1985.
Bugos, Glenn E. Atmosphere of Freedom: Sixty years at the NASA Ames Research Center. NASA SP-2000-4314, 2000.

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