Imagine a wind tunnel so large that a real airliner can be placed inside and buffeted by 100mph winds. BBC Future’s Jack Stewart investigates.
If you want to see how an airliner – a real, life-size airliner – copes with wind speeds over 100mph, then you need to come to Mountain View in California.
If you want to see how an airliner – a real, life-size airliner – copes with wind speeds over 100mph, then you need to come to Mountain View in California.
At Nasa’s Ames Research Center, the National Full- scale Aerodynamic Complex (NAFC) tests aircraft in a massive facility featuring six enormous fans allowing them to carry out research which could not be undertaken anywhere else.
That includes, in the largest of the facility’s two wind tunnels, the ability to put objects as large as a Boeing 737 fuselage through their paces, instead of having to carry out tests on models and try and scale up the data for real-life conditions.
BBC Future’s Jack Stewart paid them a visit to see how research here could help design lighter and more environmentally friendly aircraft.
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