Glenn Research Center

The Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory was first funded in 1940. Early facilities included the Engine Research Building, a facility that housed a wide variety of laboratories to study virtually every aspect of piston engines design, including combustion, lubrication, cooling, materials, and fuel. The Altitude Wind Tunnel, an engine-testing facility that could produce the high-altitude conditions that engines would increasingly experience, was also constructed.. The facility was renamed the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory (LFPL) in 1948. The Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel entered service in 1955, powered by seven electric motors totaling 250,000 horsepower, making it the world’s most powerful wind tunnel. With the creation of NASA in 1958, the laboratory became the Lewis Research Center (LeRC) and was focused on research topics such as advanced propellers and noise reduction and turbojet and turbofan testing. In 1999, NASA renamed the center once again after astronaut and Senator John Glenn. At the Glenn Research Center's Plum Brook facility, NASA's only nuclear test reactor site, high-risk facilities such as the Space Propulsion Research Facility and the Hypersonic Tunnel Facility were constructed.