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Aerospace Design: The Art of Engineering from NASA’s Aeronautical Research

Exhibition

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Aerospace Design: The Art of Engineering from NASA’s Aeronautical Research explores the architecture and engineering of wind tunnels by displaying approximately 90 objects from NASA’s collection, including wind tunnel models and flight artifacts, past and present. The exhibition commemorates the centennial of powered, controlled flight that began with the landmark take off of the Wright brothers on December 17, 1903.

Objects included in the exhibition date back to NASA’s predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), founded in 1915. Created out of that agency at the beginning of the space race in 1958, NASA has a wealth of often unexhibited and unpublished artifacts that not only document technological advances in flight over the past century but are also aesthetically striking. Beyond the historic dimension, the exhibition showcases some of the latest research being done for aircrafts with “morphing” wings, self-healing vehicle “skins” and biologically inspired sensors—elements that NASA hopes will make future air travel accident free, environmentally friendly, and affordable and accessible. In all, the project presents the history of aeronautically engineered forms in relation to architecture and design, much as previous Art Institute exhibitions have analyzed architecture and design for commercial aviation, space travel, and contemporary railroad travel. Visitors are shown another example of how aviation design is as beautiful as it can be functional.

Visit the archived exhibition website here.


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