Guide to the Daily Flight Logs, 1949-1950
Guide prepared by April Gage
NASA Ames History Office
NASA Ames Research Center
Mail Stop 207-1
Moffett Field, California 94035
Phone: (650) 604-1032
Email: ARC-DL-history@mail.nasa.gov
URL: http://history.arc.nasa.gov
©2006 NASA Ames Research Center. All rights reserved.
Guide to the Daily Flight Logs, 1949-1950
NASA Ames History Office
NASA Ames Research Center
Contact Information:
- NASA Ames History Office
- NASA Ames Research Center
- Mail Stop 207-1
- Moffett Field, CA 94035
- Phone: (650) 604-6430
- Email: ARC-DL-history@mail.nasa.gov
- URL: http://history.arc.nasa.gov/contacts.htm
- Collection processed, and guide prepared and encoded by:
- April Gage
- Date Completed:
- January 2006
©2006 NASA Ames Research Center. All rights reserved.
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.
