Before there was NASA, there was NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics). Photos from the NASA archives.
Looks to be Flamin’ Maimie before NACA’s many modifications. NACA photo, 1947.
NACA had a XB-25E called Flamin’ Maimie. If you look up Flamin’ Maimie you’ll get a couple of dominant results; a jazz song from the 1920s by the band The Coon-Sanders Nighthawks, and a big-hair female track team from Abilene, Texas, who became the first female sports team to make the cover of Sports Illustrated, in 1964.
NASA photo, 1947.
While the jazz-dance song and the track team were about ‘hot’ women, NACA’s Flamin’ Maimie was about being as cold as ice.
NASA photo, 1947.
Originally the XB-25E was used by the U.S. Army Air Force (USAAF) from 1942-44. It was a modified B-25C. The hot exhaust gasses were routed through the flying surfaces of the bomber. It was successful, but apparently the USAAF decided the added weight of the hot air de-icing system wasn’t justified. In July 1944, NACA became the new owner of Flamin’ Maimie.
NASA photo, 1949.
NACA added these protruding therm-o-meters.
NASA photo, 1950.
NACA used Flamin’ Maimie to study new de-icing technologies, and the processes which caused aircraft to collect ice. The program operated out of Ohio, from the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory (now known as NASA Glenn Research Center), until 1953.
NASA photo, 1950.
The NACA pressure icing rate meter data recorder used in the XB-25E.
NACA’s diagram of de-icers on B-25, dated 1946.
I was not able to find any information as to what happened to XB-25E Flamin’ Maimie, other than NACA “transferred” it in February 1953.
