Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel

About this property

The Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel, located at the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Federal Airfield, Mountain View, California, United States, is a research facility used extensively to design and test new generations of aircraft, both commercial and military, as well as NASA space vehicles, including the Space Shuttle. The facility was completed in 1955 and is one of five facilities created after the 1949 Unitary Plan Act supporting aeronautics research. After the construction of the Variable Density Tunnel at Langley in 1921, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics built a variety of technical research facilities upon which the American aircraft industry was based. These facilities enabled the American aircraft industry to dominate the skies in both commercial and military aviation. By 1945, America's lead in the field of aviation seemed to be evaporating. The technological achievements of the German missiles and jet aircraft indicated a lag in American aeronautical research. In 1949, Congress passed the Unitary Plan Act, under which the Federal government coordinated a national plan of facility construction encompassing NACA, as well as the Air Force, private industry, and universities. The Unitary Plan resulted in the construction of a new series of wind tunnel complexes to support the American aircraft industry, including the Ames Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel Complex. Construction of this facility began in 1950-1951 and continued until 1955. Because no one wind tunnel could meet all the demands for additional research facilities simulating the entire range of aircraft and missile flight, NACA chose to build the Ames tunnel with three separate test sections drawing power from a common centralized power plant. The transonic test section spanned 11 by 11 feet (3.3 x 3.3 m), while the two supersonic sections were smaller: nine by seven feet (2.7 x 2.1 m) and eight by seven feet (2.4 x 2.1 m). Giant valves 20 feet (6 m) in diameter supplied air from one supersonic leg to another. 11-by 11-foot Transonic Test Section. A closed-return, variable-density tunnel with a fixed-geometry, ventilated test section with a flexible wall nozzle with a Mach range of 0.20 to 1.45. 9-by 7-foot Supersonic Test Section. A closed circuit, single return, variable density, continuous flow wind tunnel with a Mach range of 1.55 to 2.55. 8-by 7-foot Supersonic Test Section. A closed circuit, single return, variable density, continuous flow wind tunnel with a Mach range of 2.55 to 3.5. (The 8x7 was decommissioned in the early 90's and is considered "mothballed"). The Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1985.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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