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6-in-1 Wind Tunnel
NACA's compact, inexpensive, versatile research "package" is ready for U. S.
colleges.
A poor man's wind tunnel, a 20th of the usual price, is now available to American
colleges. Designed by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, it comes
as a "package," takes up a third the space of a baseball infield, and can be used
for at least six major types of aviation research.
The Navy is making the new tunnel, called the Compressible Flow Unit, available
to colleges on a share-the-cost basis. The entire installation, which can be comfortably
housed in a one-story building 40 by 65 feet, costs only $50,000 to $75,000 - or
even less if surplus war materials are used. Present wind tunnels cover at least
one acre, cost about $1,000,000, and are expensive to operate.
Unlike the old "continuous" tunnels, which run under steady pressure, the packaged
tunnel is the "blow-down" type. Air is compressed in a tank, then released to provide
the stream. The air flow lasts only a few minutes before the tank must be refilled,
but in this time it can achieve a speed as high as any tunnel has reached - Mach
No. 4, or more than 3,000 m.p.h.
The Navy expects the units to be used for studies of airfoils, combustion problems
in ram-jets, and tests of nozzle shape effectiveness (useful for tail-pipe design).
Other potential research subjects include the internal-flow problems found in jet
units, the comparative value of various combinations of wing and fuselage shapes,
and the heat-transfer problems resulting from friction on the outer skin of aircraft.
The tunnels promise the training of more students in aerodynamics to replenish
the reservoir of young scientists emptied by wartime Selective Service (PSM, Mar.
'46, p. 88). The first of the units is being tested at the NACA laboratory at Langley
Field, Va., where it will be a showcase sample for prospective customers.
The Compressible Flow Unit has two small tunnels: a transonic tunnel with a 14-
by 16-inch test section and a supersonic ·tunnel four inches square. Compressed-air
system, with reservoir and dryer, powers both.
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