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A View Inside Langley's 16-Foot Wind Tunnel

The 16-Foot High-Speed Tunnel (HST) was the first wind tunnel built in the West Area of what is now NASA's Langley Research Center. The facility opened in December 1941, just two days before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

 

Langley’s limited available power supply kept the tunnel’s speed to roughly Mach 0.7, compared to Mach 1 speeds at its fully-powered twin facility at the Ames laboratory. The Langley 16-foot HST was used to test full-scale engine cooling systems and propellers throughout the 1940s.

 

In 1950, this tunnel was rebuilt with additional power and slotted walls for transonic (generally defined as being between Mach 0.7 and 1.2) operation. The revamped facility, renamed the 16-Foot Transonic Tunnel, hosted significant research programs for more than 50 years, including engine-airframe integration studies for the F-111, F-14, F-15, B-1, and B-2 aircraft.

 

This photo, taken in March 1951, is a view from inside the tunnel, giving an idea of its scale.

 

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Credit: NASA

Image number: LRC-1951-B701_P-69588

Date: March 2, 1951

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Uploaded on March 2, 2025
Taken on March 2, 1951