Thus, RG255.4 contains a great many reports or draft reports, primarily in the Report Unit series but also interfiled in the Central File series. All reports were published by the Government Printing Office, and some were reprinted in scientific journals, though not all were given broad public distribution. Each report is identified by an alpha-numeric code. The suffix is a number assigned chronologically. These are intended to expedite the flow of information to NACA customers.
Reports are the more formal presentation of ideas, hypotheses, and supporting data.
The report-related files in RG255.4 only occasionally hold the final published reports. Mostly they contain raw research data, drawings or photographs, draft versions, peer reviews, distribution lists, and correspondence with the printing office. Thus, researchers can always start their research into NACA reports more efficiently by finding the published report elsewhere. Reports can also be found at many engineering libraries or NASA Center libraries.