WEBVTT

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The Korean War was the newly

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independent Air Force's first war . The

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air force became independent from the

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army in 1947 . In terms of the labs ,

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the theme that we have here is the use

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of World War I I equipment . But then

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also the introduction of some of the

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new systems and technology developed at

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the end . And shortly after the end of

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the war , the R 4360 was

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the most powerful radial engine used by

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the US Air Force and really represents

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the ultimate peak of this technology .

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At the same time , the 4360 was being

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operated jet engines were coming online

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and ultimately superseded this kind of

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technology . But what's kind of

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interesting here is when you look at it ,

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it has very close similarities to the

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very earliest radial engines that we

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looked at . That . Uh Sam Herron's

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technology helped enable , we see it in

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this engine . So it has aluminum

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cooling fins and it has a hollow

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sodium cooled valves . Um and

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it , it's essentially it's multiple

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banks . So in some ways , it's no

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different from that early radial engine

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that we looked at earlier in the tour .

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And kind of interesting too . If you

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take a look , you can see there's a

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supercharger and you can see the

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impeller for that right there at the

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front of the engine . And we're going

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to see a similar shape in an early jet

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engine used by the US Air Force . So as

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reciprocating engines kind of fell out

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of favor and jet engines came online as

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the principal form of propulsion for

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military aircraft that created

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additional problems , problems of air

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dynamics . So when we look at this F 80

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which was really the first operational

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jet fighter used by the US Air Force ,

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it kind of looks in like a world war I

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I fighter , it has straight wings ,

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it's metal construction , in fact ,

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aerodynamically , it's essentially like

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some of the standard world war I I

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fighters used by the USA A F really

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doesn't take advantage of the power of

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the jet engine behind me . However , in

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the distance is the F 86 Saber and

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what's important here is the saber has

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swept wings and swept wings , allow the

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aircraft to take advantage of the power

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of the jet engines . And that's where

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aerodynamics really come into play .

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And we talk about things like wind

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tunnels and engineers and looking at

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different shapes that work best at

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certain speeds that of work is done

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today . And the aerospace systems

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directorate of Afr L . But one thing to

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point out on this F 80 is its intake

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and , and actually intakes and inlets

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for jet engines are very , very

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important and sometimes very , very

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difficult to shape . And it's a problem

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that our engineers and scientists deal

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with in a Fr L even today . And the

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case of the F 80 you'll notice that

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it's not just a straight intake , it's

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actually offset in the front . And

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there's a very good reason for that .

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The very earliest prototypes of the F

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80 had a problem with the boundary

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layer and that's the layer of air .

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That's right next to the fuselage .

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They needed a way to , to not have that

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air go into the intake to the engine .

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And the device that you see here

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actually is a little bit of a standoff

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that prevents that boundary layer from

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going into the intake . So as we go

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through the tour , we're going to see

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some other aircraft where the airflow

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into the engine played a really big

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role in how the aircraft performed and

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sometimes it was a really big challenge

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with the aircraft .

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Now , this display shows two important

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technologies developed by the Air

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Force's labs . We have an ejection seat

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and the lab started working on those in

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the late 19 forties . As we had ah

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looked at before by the Korean War , we

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have a tactical aircraft , fighter

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aircraft equipped with ejection seats

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and saving the lives of fighter pilots

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when they're in danger with their

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aircraft . The other technology

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represented here is the G suit . Now ,

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this represents a fighter pilot in

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Korea , but army air forces , fighter

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pilots were using G suits by 1944 in

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Europe . And our labs partnered with

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the Mayo Clinic to develop those G

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suits and they also benefited from

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Canadian and Australian researchers .

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Now , what the G suit does is it allows

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pilots to pull higher GS . And what A G

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is one G is the amount of gravity on

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our bodies when we're just standing and

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not in motion with high performance

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aircraft . When they say , for instance ,

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pull out from a dive , it pulls GS . So

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for instance , five GS would cause that

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pilot to weigh five times as much as

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they do when they're just standing on

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the ground . And the important thing

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here is pulling high G causes blood to

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drain from the head to the feet . And

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what the G suit does using pneumatics ,

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it constricts the waist and the legs

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and lessens the amount of blood that's

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draining to the feet , thereby allowing

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the pilot to pull higher and faster

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turns .