NASA’s Newest Wind Tunnel Builds on Legacy of Innovation

NASA/Mark Knopp For more than 100 years, wind tunnels at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, have helped shape the future of flight. Now, two of NASA’s longest-serving facilities — the 12-Foot Low-Speed Tunnel and the 20-Foot Vertical Spin Tunnel — will pass the torch to the Flight Dynamics Research Facility (FDRF), the first major NASA wind tunnel built in more than 40 years. “The FDRF has a combination of features found in no other single facility in the world,” said Mike Fremaux, retired chief engineer for the Intelligent Flight Systems division at NASA Langley. “It’s a high-performance vertical wind tunnel with a large test section capable of conducting all manner of tests to assess the dynamics of flight vehicles.” When the FDRF opens later this year, it will provide enhanced versions of the capabilities offered by the two legacy facilities. The FDRF’s test section will allow researchers to drop models into a rising vertical airflow. This will offer researchers the ability to conduct spin tests of aircraft and free-flight tests of vehicles designed to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere from space. The FDRF will play an integral role in conducting research that supports NASA’s aeronautics, science, and space exploration missions. Like many NASA facilities, the FDRF’s story is rooted in a history of innovation. A 1/12th scale model of the SBN-1 is tested in the 12-Foot Free-Flight Tunnel’s test section in 1940. NASA 12-Foot Low-Speed Tunnel When the 12-Foot Low-Speed Tunnel began operations in 1939, aviation looked very different than it does today. It was built for NASA’s predecessor agency, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) to study the controllability of airplanes using free fl