8-Foot High Speed Tunnel
From NasaCRgis
| Facility 641 | |
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| Center: | Langley Research Center |
| Location: | Hampton, Virginia |
| Year Built: | 1936 |
| Historic Eligibility: | National Historic Landmark |
| Important Tests: | Lockheed P-38 Fighter, A-26B Invader,Development of "area rule" |
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[top] Tours
[top] History
As interest in the field of high-speed aerodynamics increased in the early 1930s, Langley’s existing wind tunnels proved too small and underpowered for effective high-speed aircraft testing. Understanding that a new facility would give U.S. engineers a decided advantage in the aeronautical field, Langley’s director of research George W. Lewis authorized the design and construction of a larger high speed wind tunnel in 1933. Construction of the 8-Foot High Speed Tunnel (HST) was funded by the Public Works Administration (PWA) and completed in 1936 at a cost of $266,000.
Within a short time, the aluminum fan blades suffered from fatigue failure. Retired researcher John Becker remembers that:
About a year later at 3:06 a.m. on October 8, 1937, I was running the tunnel at full power and had just promised the operator at the Hampton generating plant that I would reduce power gradually when, without warning, there was a sickening break in the steady roar of the 550-mph wind. Acrid smoke filled the test chamber as I pushed the red emergency button, no doubt blowing the safety valves in Hampton. On entering the tunnel we found the huge multi-bladed drive fan twisted and broken. The cast aluminum ally blades had failed in fatigue from vibrations induced by their passage through the wakes of the support struts. Operations were suspended until March 1938, and the staff was temporarily dispersed to other sections. (see NASA SP-445).
When Becker was interviewed in 2011, he remembered this accident in detail and added that this was the stimulus to change all wind tunnel propeller blades to wood.
The world’s first large high speed tunnel, the HST proved vital during World War II. Evaluating stability-control problems of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter in the 8-Foot HST, Langley engineers devised the “dive recovery flap,” a wedge-shaped flap on the lower surface of the wings that allowed sufficient lift for a pilot to pull out of steep dives. This ingenious feature subsequently was incorporated in the design of a number of U.S. fighter aircraft, including the YP-38 Lightening, the P-47B Thunderbolt, the A-26B Invader, the P-59 Airacomet (the first U.S. jet aircraft), and the P-80 Shooting Star.
In the postwar years, Langley physicist Ray H. Wright observed that interference from wind tunnel walls could be minimized by placing slots in the test section throat, a concept that came to be known as “slotted throat” or “slotted wall tunnel” design. By the end of 1948, the 8-Foot HST had been retrofitted with the new slotted test section configuration, allowing speeds in excess of Mach 1 (the speed of sound, or approximately 761 mph at sea level). Wright and his team used the tunnel to refine the slotted-throat design, and—after modifications—the facility was re-designated the 8-Foot Transonic Tunnel (TT) in October 1950.
In the mid-1950s, the 8-Foot TT facilitated important research in body/wing design for supersonic aircraft. Langley engineer Richard Whitcomb used the tunnel to develop the revolutionary “area rule” principle that — in practical terms — prompted the use of a compressed, or “wasp-waisted,” fuselage design for supersonic jet fighters, allowing them to break what was popularly known as the “sound barrier.” Subsequent testing of area-rule aircraft designs was conducted in the adjacent tunnel, the 8-Foot Transonic Pressure Tunnel. Whitcomb’s once controversial area rule achieved widespread acclaim in the scientific community and the popular press, and he was awarded the Collier Trophy for the greatest achievement in aviation in 1955.
The TT continued in use until 1961, when it was deactivated by NASA. The facility was kept in operational condition until 1976 when critical parts were sent to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio and used in the construction of a new facility. Since then, the 8-Foot TT building has been used as office and storage space. The historical significance of the facility and its many contributions to aerospace technology (first continuous-flow high-speed wind tunnel for large test models and actual plane parts and also the landmark 'slotted-throat' design -see NPS site) were recognized when it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1985.
The office portion of the structure was remodeled and leased to the Langley Air Force Base in the early 2000s, while the tunnel circuit was left to deteriorate. In 2011, the tunnel circuit was demolished.
[top] Photos
 1935-5-9 Drawing of Tunnel Flow |
 Drive Motor |
 1936 Aerial |
1936 Exterior View |
 1936 Constructing Propeller |
 1936 Control Room |
 1936 16' Fan |
 1936 Fan Blades with Researcher |
 1936 Fan Blades |
 1936 Inside |
 1936 Researcher |
 1936 Test Model |
 1936 Test Section |
 Description and Photos |
 1939 Control Station |
 1945 Control Console |
 NACA era Test Section |
 NACA era Test Section |
 Motor in Tunnel ~1951 |
 Motor in Tunnel ~1951 |
 1950 Ray Wright in Diving Suit |
 WWII with Tunnel in Camouflage Paint |
 1952 Aerial |
 1952 Turning Vanes |
 1952-03-10 Existing Substation- 8' HST Transformer |
 1953 Controls |
 1955 Richard Whitcomb with Model |
 1956 |
 1957 Inside |
 1964 Whitcomb with Model |
 1967 Aerial |
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 2003 Exterior |
 2006 Digital Cutaway |
 2006 Exterior |
 2008 641 |
 2008 641 |
 2008 Intake and Exhaust |
 Green Building |
[top] Condition and Demolition (2011)
 HAER Documentation |
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 Building Sign |
 Scout Sign |
 Historic Marker |
 Narrative |
 Location |
 Floor Plan |
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 2012 Remaining Structure |
 2012 Remaining Structure |
[top] Films
NACA-Era: P-47 Metal Rudder Flutter Test
1946: Human Tolerance to Wind Blasts
1950s: Dr. Theodorsens Flutter
[top] Interviews
[top] Documents
1933-1936 Eight Foot High Speed Wind Tunnel
1945 Investigation of Typical High-Speed Bomber Wing
1947 Investigation of Practical Application of Slotted Wind Tunnel
1948 Development of a Slotted Supersonic Test Section and its Application to 8' HST
1951 Installation of 22,000 Horsepower Drive
1952 John Stack Acceptance Speech for Recognition from Collier Trophy Committee and Biography
1955 Air Scoop Vol. 14 Issue 47
1957 NACA Slot Shapes Research Paper Ray Wright
1965 Brief Description of 2-Foot Hypersonic Facility
Section of "Wind Tunnels of NASA" site describing "The First Big High-Speed Tunnel (8-Foot High Speed Tunnel--641)
1984 National Register Nomination
1992 Procedures to Repair 8' HST
1995 Historic American Engineering Record
1995 Library of Congress: American Memory
2001 National Park Service, Man In Space; A National Historic Landmark Theme Study
2006 Historic American Engineering Record 8 Ft HST Addendum
Characterisitics of the Langley 8-Foot TT with Slotted Test Section
Paragraph Published in Virginia Landmarks Register on the 8' High Speed Tunnel
[top] Technical Reports
Wind Tunnel Tests of a Submerged Engine Fuselage Design. 1940.
The Effect of Spinner-Body Gap on the Pressures Available for Cooling in the NACA E-Type Cowling. 1943.
The High Speed Frontier. John V. Becker. 1980.
From Engineering Science to Big Science. Pamela E. Mack, edit. 1998.
