West Area Computers

All-African American group of female mathematicians that existed at the NASA Langley Research Center

The West Area Computers (short for West Area Computing Unit) were the African American women who worked as human computers at the Langley Research Center of NACA (predecessor of NASA) from 1943 through 1958. Most of their work involved reading, analyzing, and plotting data for aircraft testing, supersonic flight research, and, later, the space program.

From Wikipedia

The West Area Computers (short for West Area Computing Unit) were the African American women who worked as human computers at the Langley Research Center of NACA (predecessor of NASA) from 1943 through 1958. Most of their work involved reading, analyzing, and plotting data for aircraft testing, supersonic flight research, and, later, the space program. In the era before digital computers, they worked by hand, one-on-one with engineers or in computing sections.

Text: Wikipédia, CC BY-SA 4.0. · Image: NASA (Public domain) ·

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