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Engines and Innovation - Lewis Laboratory and American Propulsion Technology (Paperback)
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Engines and Innovation - Lewis Laboratory and American Propulsion Technology (Paperback)
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When Francis Bacon wrote the New Atlantis in the early 17th
century, he envisioned a state-supported research institution in
which knowledge could be applied to 'enlarge the bounds of Human
Empire, to the effecting of all things possible." Among the
research facilities to increase the protection and material
comforts of the inhabitants of his imaginary island, Bacon imagined
an Engine House to study all types of motion, including flight.
National aeronautical research laboratories in Europe and the
United States in the early 20th century reflected Bacon's vision of
science applied to the practical problems of flight. Commitment to
innovation accompanied Bacon's belief in progress. His utopia
honored inventors, not politicians or academics. In 1941 the same
commitment to innovation and industrial progress won federal
funding for a laboratory in Cleveland, Ohio. Local and national
leaders expected the new laboratory to promote innovations in
aircraft engine technology to help win the war against Germany.
Contributions to the development of superior engines for military
and passenger aircraft after World War II justified the large
federal investment in research facilities and personnel. Today this
laboratory is the NASA Lewis Research Center. In contrast to the
isolation of the ideal research institution of Bacon's vision,
Lewis took shape in a flesh-and-blood world of personalities,
national security concerns, and postwar capitalism. Two
transitions, both precipitated by advances in propulsion
technology, provide the structure for my history: the revolution in
jet propulsion during World War II, and the launch of Sputnik in
October 1957. Each had significant national political, military,
and economic repercussions. Each forced the laboratory to
restructure its research program and to redefine its relationships
with its three constituencies--the military, industry, and
academia. Within this framework I have distinguished one theme that
recurs throughout the laboratory's history--the tension between
fundamental or basic research and development. In the process of
writing my history I found that these terms could not be defined in
any absolute sense. Their meaning is enmeshed in the history of
Lewis, and the definitions of research and development changed as
Lewis evolved. As an institution, Lewis engaged in a continuing
reevaluation of its role within the American propulsion community
and, after the formation of NASA in 1958, within a vastly expanded
federal bureaucracy.
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