Altitude Wind Tunnel Drive Fan being Assembled

National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) engineers assembled the Altitude Wind Tunnel’s (AWT) large wooden drive fan inside the hangar at the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory. When it was built at the in the early 1940s the AWT was among the most complex test facilities ever designed. It was the first wind tunnel capable of operating full-scale engines under realistic flight conditions. This simulation included the reduction of air temperature, a decrease in air pressure, and the creation of an airstream velocity of up to 500 miles per hour. The AWT was constructed in 1942 and 1943. This photograph shows NACA engineers Lou Hermann and Jack Aust assembling the tunnel’s drive fan inside the hangar. The 12-bladed, 31-foot-diameter spruce wood fan would soon be installed inside the wind tunnel to create the high-speed airflow. This massive propeller was designed and constructed by the engine lab's design team at Langley Field. John Breisch, a Langley technician with several years of wind tunnel installation experience, arrived in Cleveland at the time of this photograph to supervise the fan assembly inside the hangar. He would return several weeks later to oversee the actu

Date

1943-07-23

Collection

GRC

Archive

NASA Image and Video Library

Type

photograph

Need photos for a whole script? Add Find Any Photo to Claude and ask for this one by its id: 90283.