NASA Visitor Center Unveils 'Adventures In Flight'

Michael Braukus
Headquarters, Washington                 November 13, 2003
(Phone: 202/358-1979)

Kathy Barnstorff
Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va.
(Phone: 757-864-9886)

RELEASE: 03-365

NASA VISITOR CENTER UNVEILS "ADVENTURES IN FLIGHT"

     NASA's Langley Research Center visitor center in Hampton, 
Va., is celebrating the centennial of flight by unveiling a 
new state-of-the-art, interactive gallery. The one million-
cubic-foot "Adventures in Flight" in the Virginia Air & Space 
Center (VASC) chronicles the history of aviation, and NASA's 
contributions to flight. 

The $6.4 million gallery features a classic DC-9 airplane. The 
plane invites visitors to sit at the controls of a "glass 
cockpit" simulator. NASA researchers helped develop glass 
cockpit technology in the 1970s. Cockpit displays show pilots 
information with the help of computer graphics and have 
replaced gauges and dials in many aircraft.

NASA Associate Administrator for Aerospace Technology, Victor 
Lebacqz, represented the agency at the gallery opening. "I was 
entranced with the airplane simulators. That's what I've done 
in the past with all the old airplanes and fighters, but 
mostly with the interactive exhibits that permit students to 
play with tools of the trade," Lebacqz said. "The display is 
wonderful. You just won't find a simulator like that anywhere 
else," he said.

The new gallery helps illustrate NASA's vital role in the 
development of modern commercial air transportation and 
military aviation. It also shows how research is creating new 
technology for the next century of flight. The VASC captured 
futuristic designs in a special NASA display that shows 
airplane concepts that may some day fly on an interstate 
skyway. The exhibit depicts next-generation aircraft and 
systems being developed by NASA researchers who are studying 
ways to make planes efficient, safer and quieter. 


Also new to the center is a NASA research aircraft that tested 
technology to improve the safety and maneuverability of 
military jet fighters in combat situations. NASA engineers 
used the F-18 HARV (High Alpha Research Vehicle) to study 
airflow, aircraft control and engine performance at high 
angles of attack, the extreme flight attitudes experienced by 
jets during air combat missions. Systems tested on the F-18 
HARV were applied to new military fighters, including the F-22 
Raptor.

The gallery adds to an already impressive collection of NASA 
artifacts at the VASC. They include the Apollo XII capsule 
that carried Americans on the second moon landing mission, a 
moon rock and a NASA aircraft that was repeatedly struck by 
lightning for safety research.

For information about NASA on the Internet, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

For information on NASA's Langley Research Center on the 
Internet, visit:

http://www.larc.nasa.gov

For more information on the Virginia Air & Space Center on the 
Internet, visit:

http://www.vasc.org