Historic Photos of NASA's Cavernous Wind Tunnels - The Atlantic
Historic Photos of NASA's Cavernous Wind Tunnels
Alan Taylor
May 17, 2018
39 Photos
In Focus
Throughout the 20th century, NASA (and its predecessor, NACA) made extensive use of wind tunnels to test and refine designs for airplanes, spacecraft, and many other vehicles and structures. Dozens of specialized tunnels were constructed over the years at Langley Research Center in Virginia and Ames Research Center in California, to test the effects of high windspeed, turbulence, icing, ionization, and much more. Some of these facilities were gigantic—the largest, still in operation, is the 80-foot by 120-foot tunnel at NASA's Ames Research Center. In the 1990s, a surplus of government wind tunnels and advances in computer simulations led to a consolidation, and a number of older facilities were demolished. Gathered here, a collection of images of NASA’s amazing wind tunnels from the past century.
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A technician prepares to unlatch the door built into the guide vanes of the 16-foot transonic wind tunnel at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, in March of 2010. The tunnel, one of dozens of research facilities at Langley, was built in 1939 and operated until 2004, when it was retired as part of a national initiative to optimize government-owned wind tunnels. Operating "transonically" or across the speed of sound, the air in the test section traveled from about 150 to 1,000 miles per hour. The guide vanes, which formed an ellipse 58 feet high and 82 feet wide, cut across each cylindrical tube at a 45-degree angle. Similar sets of vanes at the three other corners of the wind tunnel turned the air uniformly as it rushed through the 1,000-foot race track-like enclosed tube. If guide vanes were omitted, the air would have piled up in dense masses along the outside curves, like water rounding a bend in a fast brook.
Bill Taub / NASA
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The air intake for NACA tunnel number one. In 1920, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) completed its first wind-tunnel facility, a copy of an existing British tunnel. The honeycombed open-circuit air intake ensured a steady, non-turbulent flow of air.
Langley Research Center / NASA
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A model plane is set up for testing in tunnel number 1.
Langley Research Center / NASA
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The eight-foot-high speed tunnel, located in Building 641 of NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, seen from the water in 1936. The reinforced concrete structure contained generated winds up to Mach 1.
Langley Research Center / NASA
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A full-size Loening XSL-1 reconnaissance flying boat is set up for testing in the full-scale wind tunnel at NASA's Langley Research Center in July of 1932.
Library of Congress
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Construction of the 40 foot by 80 foot wind tunnel at Ames Research Center in July of 1943. Construction began in late 1941, with the mammoth construction task sorely taxing the resources of the new center. Two and a half years later, in June of 1944, the full-scale tunnel went into operation.
NASA / Ames Research Center
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Construction progress of the 19-foot pressure tunnel at Langley Research Center on March 16, 1937.
Langley Research Center / NASA
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The 5-foot free-flight tunnel in use in 1939.
Langley Research Center / NASA
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Progress on construction of the 12-foot low-speed tunnel at Building 644, on April 29, 1938.
Langley Research Center / NASA
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A 1/40th-scale model of the navy airship U.S.S. Akron being prepared for aerodynamic testing on a ground board at zero degrees of yaw in the full-scale tunnel in 1935.
Langley Research Center / NASA
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The Langley engineer Charles Zimmerman developed what some called a "flying pancake," better known as the Zimmer Skimmer or V-173 Flying Wing. The concept was designed for the U.S. Navy as a potential vertical takeoff and landing aircraft for use onboard ships. A view of the prototype, on which the XF5U was based, photographed during wind-tunnel testing on November 28, 1941.
Langley Research Center / NASA
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A man stands beside the 16-foot high-speed tunnel fan blades in 1943.
Langley Research Center / NASA
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Construction view from inside the contraction framing of the 40 foot by 80 foot wind tunnel at Ames Research Center with a blimp flying in the background, in July of 1943.
Langley Research Center / NASA
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Six 40-foot-diameter fans stand in the Ames 40 foot by 80 foot wind tunnel, each powered by a 6,000-horsepower electric motor, capable of maintaining airflow up to 230 miles per hour. Photographed on June 9, 1944.
Langley Research Center / NASA
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View of the 16-foot high-speed wind-tunnel facility at the NACA Ames Aeronautical Laboratory, Moffett...