Jump to Content

Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Guide to the Daily Flight Logs, 1949-1950
AFS7910.01  
View entire collection guide What's This?
Search this collection
Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Administrative Information
  • Custodial History
  • Administrative History
  • Indexing Terms
  • Scope and Content

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Daily Flight Logs,
    Date (inclusive): 1949-1950
    Collection Number: AFS7910.01
    Creator: National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, Ames Aeronautical Laboratory, Flight Operations
    Extent: Number of containers: 1 Volume: .35 cubic feet
    Repository: Ames Research Center, Ames History Office
    Moffett Field, California 94035
    Abstract: Daily Flight Log, 1949 - 1950 is composed of flight logs kept by the Flight Operations group of the Northern California-based National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) on a daily basis for the years 1949 and 1950.
    Language: English

    Administrative Information

    Access

    Collection is open for research.

    Publication Rights

    Copyright does not apply to United States government records. For non-government material, researcher must contact the original creator.

    Preferred Citation

    NASA Ames History Office, NASA Ames Research Center. Moffett Field, California. AFS7910.01, Daily Flight Logs, 1949-1950, [Container number] : [Folder number]. [Identification of item]. [Date, if available].

    Custodial History

    When the Flight Operations group decided to dispose of their paper-based flight logs, Michael R. Landis, a long-time employee of NASA Ames, acquired the 1949 and 1950 daily flight logs. The two logs remained in Mr. Landis’s personal possession until 2004, when he transferred them to the NASA Ames History Office.

    Acquisition Information

    Transferred by Mike Landis in August 2004.

    Administrative History

    The administrative history of these records was conveyed by Mr. Landis, with comments by Warren Hall and corrections from the written materials noted.
    Daily records of flight activity of the Ames Aeronautical Laboratory of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), which took place at what is now Moffett Field, California, were recorded by the committee’s Flight Operations Group. When the National Aeronautics and Space Act became law in July 29, 1958, the NACA was incorporated into NASA and the group came under the purview of the NASA Ames Research Center (Hartman, 1970). The group was initially located in Building N210, which, in addition to being one of the first buildings, was one of the first hangars erected by the NACA. Later, Flight Operations moved to another hangar, Building N211, which is still in use today.
    The Flight Operations Group used these daily logs to record such information as tests performed (e.g., "Remote control of SB2C-5," "body drop" or "Calibration of N.A.A. swivel head & ck. of transducers") and round-trip flights between Moffett Field and locations such as the High Speed Flight Research Station at Muroc, California (now Dryden Flight Research Center), Sacramento, and various Air Force bases. Although most of the flights appear to have been for testing, pilot training exercises and passenger transport, some were for equipment transfer. Pilots, co-pilots, and flight mechanics are indicated, but only by last name (e.g., there are multiple listings for a "Cooper" who was, presumably, George E. Cooper, a test pilot at the time these logs were created). Other information recorded in the logs includes passengers by last name, including an entry for a "Hemingway."
    Flight Operations organized daily flight logs by calendar year until the 1970s, when the group began to keep them by fiscal year. During the 1960s, Flight Operations initiated the process of maintaining flight log records on computers, while retaining the traditional practice of keeping track of flights using pen and paper. Although the computer records included details similar to those in the paper records, such as the crew, type of aircraft, and purpose of the flight, they contained more information than the traditional, paper-based logs. Unlike the early logs, details in the computer records were encoded, requiring the use of a key to decipher their meaning, making the contents less accessible than the physical books. However, the computerized logs contained much more data, such as pilot qualifications (e.g., experience flying a given aircraft, date of last flight, date of last physical), which helped dispatchers readily determine whether a pilot was eligible to fly. Flight Operations kept paper-based daily flight logs until 1985, after which only computer records were kept.
    In addition to the logs maintained by Flight Operations such as those in this collection, pilots kept personal flight logs.

    Indexing Terms

    The following terms may be used to index this collection.

    Corporate Names

    Ames Aeronautical Laboratory (U.S.)
    United States. National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics.
    Ames Research Center.

    Subjects

    Logbooks
    Airplanes Testing
    Airplanes Piloting

    Geographic Names

    Moffett Field (Calif.)

    Scope and Content

    Daily Flight Logs, 1949 - 1950 (.35 cubic feet) is composed of flight logs kept by the Flight Operations group of the Ames Aeronautical Laboratory of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). These records were kept on a daily basis for the years 1949 and 1950 and were originally contained in two separate binders, one for each year's logs. This collection is divided into two series which are arranged by date.
    Information is recorded in the logs by hand and includes details such as the type of airplane flown; test performed; names of pilot, co-pilot and passengers (if any); and takeoff and landing times.