Feb 8 2006
From The Space Library
NASA announced that the aviation industry, including the Boeing Company, was using the unique wind-tunnel technology that NASA had developed to test new aviation concepts before applying them in flight. Unlike conventional wind tunnels, the National Transonic Facility at NASA’s LaRC used super-cold nitrogen gas at high pressure to duplicate true-flight aerodynamics capability, even with models as small as 1/50th the size of the typical test aircraft. According to facility chief aerodynamicist Richard A. Wahls, this capability “allows the aircraft manufacturers to produce better performing airplanes with less risk.” Boeing had purchased wind-tunnel time to evaluate high-lift system designs for its new 787 jet aircraft.
NASA, “Industry Uses NASA Wind Tunnels To Design New Airplanes,” news release 06-060, 8 February 2006, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2006/feb/HQ_06060_LaRC_wind_tunnel.html (accessed 14 September 2009).
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
