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National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics

The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was a U.S. federal agency founded on March 3, 1915 to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research. On October 1, 1958 the agency was dissolved, and its assets and personnel transferred to the newly created National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

The program was referred to as, "The N. A. C. A." Each individual letter was enunciated, in contrast to its successor NASA, which is pronounced phonetically as "nahsah" to this day. However,people on the "Peninsula" of Virginia still pronounced the letters N.A.S.A. Not until the Manned Space flight facility was moved to Texas, did people slowly come to say, "nahsah". The name remains familiar in the automotive world for the NACA duct, a type of air intake, or to those in the aircraft industry, as several series of NACA airfoils and NACA cowling are still being used in new designs.