Nasa

Nasa has a rich and varied history. Its research and development arms have led to commercial spaceflight being a reality and its engineers have created technology that's

One of the space agency's latest drives has been to digitise its archives and make them as publicly accessible as possible. And there's no better place than YouTube.


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Nasa's Armstrong Flight Research Centre, which deals with aircraft technology and creating new models for flight, is now uploading 500 videos from its archives to YouTube.

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Previously, the videos were only available through the obscure Dryden Aircraft Movie Collection. So far, around 300 have been uploaded and the clips date back to at least 1947.

As Nasa hopes the videos will help to promote the Nasa's research and public awareness, we've picked out our favourites from the current crop.


Hyper III

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The Hyper III is one of the weirder looking (but not the weirdest) aircraft built by Nasa. The low-cost vehicles was designed to test its body shape and learn how more lift could be created through aerodynamics. "On the Hyper III's only flight, it was towed aloft attached to a Navy SH-3 helicopter by a 400-foot cable," Nasa says. Once it was dropped from the helicopter it glided to land remotely, although there was also space for a pilot on-board.

Moon landing vehicle

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This quick-fire 48-second video from 1969 gives a glimpse at the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle being tested. The craft, with one brave pilot, can be seen taking off and hovering a short distance off the ground before presumably (we don't see it in the video) coming back down to earth.


"Success of the LLRVs led to the building of three Lunar Landing Training Vehicles (LLTVs) used by Apollo astronauts," Nasa says alongside the video.

Inflating wings

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The small plane dropped from a mothership in this 2001 footage has inflatable wings. After being released by the larger aircraft, the plane's wings are forced out of their storage position by an on-board nitrogen bottle. Nasa says: "The aircraft remained stable as it transitioned from wingless to winged flight". It was only flown three times.

Mach 3 planes

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This plane is one of the fastest ever produced. The SR-7 Blackbird Pilot Trainer was capable of flying at more than 2,200mph (three times the speed of sound) and at astonishing heights of 85,000 feet. The first versions of the plane were developed more than 30 years ago but this takeoff clip is from 1992. Nasa says the data collected by the SR-7s is helping its staff learn more about supersonic flight and design its next planes that will pass the sound barrier.

Launch of the Atlantis shuttle

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Moving the Space Shuttle was a complicated business. Here, after the Atlantis had returned form a 14-day mission to the International Space Station, it is flown across the United States from the Mojave Desert to the Kennedy Space Centre.

The Mini-Sniffer

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"The Mini-Sniffer represents one of the earliest attempts by Nasa to monitor the earth's atmosphere at high altitudes and was also considered for planetary atmospheric sampling flights over Mars," Nasa says. This aircraft is one of three drones that were built and propelled by a small "air-breathing" engine. The Mini-Sniffers were built at the Nasa Dryden Research Centre.

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Hyper-X plane launching

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From 2001, this video shows the first launch of the Hyper-X plane that's able to travel at hypersonic speeds. "Hyper-X research began with conceptual design and wind tunnel work in 1996," Nasa says on its website. Three of the un-piloted X-43A aircraft were built.

Solar powered Helios

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Last year, Bertrand Piccard proved it was possible to fly around the world in a solar powered plane. This video form 2003 shows early developments of large-winged solar planes. Developed by Nasa's Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology project, the Helios prototype can be seen taking its first tentative flight in Hawaii.

Crash landing

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In flight, not everything always goes to plan but when things go wrong it's best to be prepared for them. This 1984 footage shows what happens when you crash land a Boeing 720 on purpose. Unsurprisingly, there's a lot of fire.