 |
The Brewster Buffalo undergoes drag testing in 1938. |
The NASA Langley Research Center:
In 1929, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, an organization that would become NASA Langley Research Center, began construction on a massive and unique facility: the Full-Scale Tunnel. Housed in a huge building in Virginia, the nation's first wind tunnel for testing full-size airplanes had a 30-foot by 60-foot maw through which two fans powered by 4,000-horsepower motors blew air at speeds of up to 120 miles an hour. Airplanes would be suspended in the path of the artificial wind. Transducers could convert the energy of the air hitting the plane into measurements for drag and lift.That's pretty fascinating. My family has had a lot of involvement in air movement technology, so I find this to be interesting.
Though engineers completed the tunnel in 1934, its finest hour was probably during World War II, when it operated virtually non-stop.
No comments:
Post a Comment