Ames Research Center

In the 1930s, Congress voted to authorize a new aircraft laboratory and the NACA selected Moffett Field, an underutilized Navy dirigible base at Mountain View, California, for its location. Construction of three wind tunnels began immediately, and plans for others started to take shape as well. Additional tunnels, including the 40- by 80-Foot Full-Scale Tunnel (now part of the National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex) opened during World War II and contributed significantly to the war effort. With the beginning of space exploration and the creation of NASA in 1958, research at the renamed Ames Research Center expanded beyond atmospheric flight and into the realm of hypersonic and hypervelocity tunnels to explore the problems of entering the atmospheres of the Earth and other planets from space. Reduced Congressional support and changes in the aerospace industry in the 1990s forced the center to mothball or close a number of its tunnels. It now operates a small fraction of its facilities. Two tunnels owned by NASA are now operated by the Air Force primarily to meet Army rotorcraft development needs.