A wind tunnel is "an apparatus for producing a controlled stream of air for conducting aerodynamic experiments". The experiment is conducted in the test section of the wind tunnel and a complete tunnel configuration includes air ducting to and from the test section and a device for keeping the air in motion, such as a fan. Wind tunnel uses include assessing the effects of air on an aircraft in flight or a ground vehicle moving on land, and measuring the effect of wind on buildings and bridges. Wind tunnel test sections range in size from less than a foot across, to over 100 feet (30 m), and with air speeds from a light breeze to hypersonic.
The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was a United States federal agency that was founded on March 3, 1915, to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research. On October 1, 1958, the agency was dissolved and its assets and personnel were transferred to the newly created National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NACA is an initialism, i.e., pronounced as individual letters, rather than as a whole word.
Richard Travis Whitcomb was an American aeronautical engineer who was noted for his contributions to the science of aerodynamics.
The Robert J. Collier Trophy is awarded annually for the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America, with respect to improving the performance, efficiency, and safety of air or space vehicles, the value of which has been thoroughly demonstrated by actual use during the preceding year.
The Langley Research Center, located in Hampton, Virginia near the Chesapeake Bay front of Langley Air Force Base, is the oldest of NASA's field centers. LaRC has focused primarily on aeronautical research but has also tested space hardware such as the Apollo Lunar Module. In addition, many of the earliest high-profile space missions were planned and designed on-site. Langley was also considered a potential site for NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center prior to the eventual selection of Houston, Texas.
The NACA cowling is a type of aerodynamic fairing used to streamline radial engines installed on airplanes. It was developed by Fred Weick of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in 1927. It was a major advancement in aerodynamic drag reduction, and paid for its development and installation costs many times over due to the gains in fuel efficiency that it enabled. It won the 1929 Collier Trophy.
A scimitar propeller is a type of propeller that has curved blades with increasing sweep along the leading edge. Their name is derived from their visual similarity to the curved blades of scimitars. In the early 1900s, as established by the French aeronautical inventor Lucien Chauvière and his commercial success with his scimitar-shaped Integrale propeller design, they were made of laminated wood. The combination of light weight and efficient aerodynamics results in more power and reduced noise.
Fred Ernest Weick (1899–1993) was an airmail pilot, research engineer, and aircraft designer. Working at the NACA, he won the 1929 Collier Trophy for his design of the NACA cowling for radial air-cooled engines. Weick's aircraft designs include the Ercoupe, Piper PA-25 Pawnee, and Cherokee.
A cowling is the removable covering of a vehicle's engine, most often found on automobiles, motorcycles, airplanes, and on outboard boat motors. On airplanes, cowlings are used to reduce drag and to cool the engine. On boats, cowlings are a cover for an outboard motor. In addition to protecting the engine, outboard motor cowlings need to admit air while keeping water out of the air intake.
Ira H. Abbott was an American aerospace engineer. After graduating from MIT, Abbott started working for Langley Aeronautical Laboratory in 1929. He contributed significantly to the establishment of high-speed research programs and published numerous technical reports on aerodynamics. He eventually attained the post of assistant chief of research at Langley in 1945.
In aeronautics, an aircraft propeller, also called an airscrew, converts rotary motion from an engine or other power source into a swirling slipstream which pushes the propeller forwards or backwards. It comprises a rotating power-driven hub, to which are attached several radial airfoil-section blades such that the whole assembly rotates about a longitudinal axis. The blade pitch may be fixed, manually variable to a few set positions, or of the automatically variable "constant-speed" type.
A Townend ring is a narrow-chord cowling ring fitted around the cylinders of an aircraft radial engine to reduce drag and improve cooling. It was patented in 1929, and found use on various aircraft of the 1930s and into the 1940s.
Theodore Theodorsen was a Norwegian-American theoretical aerodynamicist noted for his work at NACA and for his contributions to the study of turbulence.
The Vought XSB3U was an American biplane scout bomber developed by Vought-Sikorsky for the United States Navy during the 1930s. Developed as an alternative to the SB2U Vindicator monoplane, the aircraft proved unsatisfactory to the Navy in comparison, and development was not pursued.
The Variable Density Tunnel (VDT) was the second wind tunnel at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) Langley Research Center. Proposed by German aerospace engineer, Max Munk, student of Ludwig Prandtl, it was the world's first variable density wind tunnel and allowed for more accurate testing of small-scale models than could be obtained with atmospheric wind tunnels.
Deflected slipstream is an approach to creating an aircraft that can take off and land vertically (VTOL), or at least with a very short runway (STOL). The basic principle is to deflect the slipstream from one or more propellers approximately 90 degrees, to create an upward thrust for vertical takeoff and a downward air cushion for landing. Once airborne, the flaps are retracted so the airplane can fly horizontally.
The Bristol Type 92, sometimes known as the Laboratory biplane, was an aircraft built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company to address the differences between wind tunnel cowling models and full scale cowling for radial engines and was designed as a scaled-up version of a wind tunnel model aircraft. One was built and flew in the mid-1920s.
The Virginia Tech Stability Wind Tunnel is a medium-scale wind tunnel located at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia. With a test section measuring 6 by 6 ft and maximum wind speeds of approximately 262.6 ft/s (80.0 m/s), it is one of the largest university-owned wind tunnels in the United States, and is used for a wide variety of research projects within the college as well as being contracted out for commercial use, especially product testing. Professor William Devenport is the current director, and Dr. Aurelien Borgoltz is the assistant director.
Mary Jackson was an American mathematician and aerospace engineer at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), which in 1958 was succeeded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). She worked at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, for most of her career. She started as a computer at the segregated West Area Computing division in 1951. In 1958, after taking engineering classes, she became NASA's first black female engineer.
Lewis August Rodert (1906–1973) of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was awarded the 1946 Collier Trophy for the design, development, and practical application of a thermal aircraft anti-icing system. NACA icing research leader from 1936 to 1945. Lew built his own de-icing systems on a Lockheed 12A and a Curtiss C-46 creating a flying de-ice laboratory.
