I bet this thread doesn’t last long! Here is a pic of the, and I quote ” New North American Aviation supersonic wind tunnel designed to test guided missiles and aircraft models at speed over five times faster than sound. Major units of the new facility include, left to right, the dry air storage tank, the test building where the wind tunnel testing is performed, the vacuum chamber, and the vacuum pump building”. Photo courtesy of North American Aviation Inc, Los Angeles Airport, Los Angeles 45 California. C 1950…
By: pagen01 - 8th July 2011 at 16:32
I’ve stood in the throat of the Farnborough 24 foot wind tunnel, an incredible thing to witness with its massive mahogany prop/fan.
Also looked at two other tunnels there, possibly the 11 1/2ft and 4ft, aswel as the ‘new’ 5 metre DERA tunnel, all of them are amazing bits of engineering and mechanics!
By: Arabella-Cox - 8th July 2011 at 14:57
Wow, a supersonic balloon! Old B W sure thought outside the box 🙂
By: TonyT - 8th July 2011 at 13:29
There is a supersonic one at Brooklands used by Barnes Wallace during the war! it is a brick building, but internally concreted to the shape of the balloon that used to be inflated inside it.
By: Phantom Phil - 7th July 2011 at 22:14
Coventry Airport
I remember the purpose built ones when I worked for CFS Aeroproducts at Coventry Airport. They were origionaly built and designed by Alvis Engines..
By: ZRX61 - 7th July 2011 at 19:48
Almost forgot, the local Uni has a supersonic windtunnel, but somewhat small. Think it takes up an area about 18ft long by 2 or 3ft square.
By: merlin70 - 7th July 2011 at 19:30
Scale wind tunnels
I have 3 wind tunnels in my garage, each at 2 meters long and adequate for 1:72 scale a/c.
The only service they now provide is for demonstrating airflows during workshops to gifted and talented secondary students.
By: ZRX61 - 7th July 2011 at 19:12
Marquart had one at VNY, when they closed it was loaded onto a large truck & ended up at Edwards AFB… at least I think that’s where it went, I know it’s somewhere around the valley here…
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July 7, 2011 at 7:01 pm