HAMPTON, Va. (WRIC) — NASA’s Langley Research Center was founded in Hampton, Virginia over 100 years ago .
NASA’s Langley Research Center is comprised of nearly 200 facilities on 764 acres in Hampton, Virginia and employs about 3,400 civil servants and contractors.
According to NASA, Langley works to make revolutionary improvements to aviation, expand understanding of the Earth’s atmosphere and develop technology for space exploration.
History of achievements
According to NASA , the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory was founded just three months after America’s entry into World War I, and was established as the nation’s first civilian facility focused on aeronautical research.
The goal of the facility was to “solve the fundamental problems of flight,” with Langley engineers devising technologies for safer, higher, farther and faster air travel.
According to NASA, Langley researchers developed the wing shapes still used today in airplane design. Within its first decades, Langley’s groundbreaking aeronautical advances included better propellers, all-metal airplanes, new kinds of rotorcraft and helicopters, as well as faster-than-sound flight.