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era. The breadth and depth of NASA aeronautics innovations from the 1970s on are truly impressive. • The development of the NASTRAN integrated software package, which became the standard structural analysis code for the aviation industry. • Flight Research Center engineers validated digital flyby-wire aircraft, or all-electronic flight control systems. Digital fly-by-wire systems allowed computers to control military and commercial aircraft and the space shuttles, increasing stability and maneuverability. • Spurred on by Ames Research Center Director Hans Mark, researchers at Ames as well as Langley revolutionized the use of Computational Fluid Dynamics, utilizing high speed supercomputers that could solve demanding aeronautical research problems by using many processors in parallel.
M Original configuration of the aft flight deck of the NASA 737 with monochrome flight displays. This first “glass cockpit” paved the way for the full-color, multifunction electronic flatpanel displays that equip aircraft flight decks today.
• As transport aircraft instrument design increased in complexity, engineers at Langley joined with industry to develop and test electronic flight display concepts, culminating in test flights on a Boeing 737 using Rockwell Collins hardware that became the modern full-color, multifunction, electronic flat panel display glass cockpit. The technology went on to be standard equipment for commercial, business and military aircraft and the space shuttle. • A push to make airplanes more efficient in response to the 1973-1974 oil embargo imposed on the U.S. and other western countries by the Organization of
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