Engines, All the engines: [NASM.XXXX.1183.B] National Air & Space Museum Technical Reference Files: Propulsion

[Voyager]

https://sova.si.edu/details/NASM.XXXX.1183.B?s=0&n=10&t=C&q=power+plant+laboratory&i=8#ref1

 

Not sure if you all have seen this, but I have might have found the mother load. It looks like the US Signal Corps started a Power Plant Laboratory in 1917 in McCook Field, which got absorbed into Wright Field in 1927, then Wright-Patterson Ai Force Base in 1948 which spun off the National Museum of the USAF in Dayton Ohio, which sent all of its records to the Smithsonian at some point.

 

Apparently they tested everything. Like from the ABC Dragonfly forward. They've got 175 cubic feet of propulsion research.

 

Given the scale of what they've got and the full scope of what this genre as a whole is looking for, I'm wondering if it would be worth organizing a coordinated expedition out there to trawl the archives for all the stuff we're looking for?

 

Thank you,

 

Harry Voyager

[kissTheSky]

I think the archives are closed due to the pandemic. If they’re not, I can volunteer some time if there’s information needed for the developers. 

[LukeFF]

19 minutes ago, kissTheSky said:

I think the archives are closed due to the pandemic. If they’re not, I can volunteer some time if there’s information needed for the developers. 

 

Yes, it's pretty much impossible to get anything from the US archives right now (I've tried twice in the last year, once recently, to no avail).

[kissTheSky]

6 minutes ago, LukeFF said:

 

Yes, it's pretty much impossible to get anything from the US archives right now (I've tried twice in the last year, once recently, to no avail).

This archive seems to be at the Air & Space Museum, so there’s a chance Smithsonian might open them sooner than the rest of the archives. 
 

I was at that museum less than two weeks ago, and if I remember correctly the “library” section was still closed, but perhaps they’re allowing people by appointment, the way they allow public into the main museum since they reopened 2 months ago.