NASA opens new Flight Dynamics Research Facility
NASA opened the Flight Dynamics Research Facility at Langley, a 25,000-square-foot wind tunnel that consolidates and replaces the 20-Foot Vertical Spin Tunnel and the 12-Foot Low-Speed Tunnel. The facility features a 20-foot diameter test chamber, a top airspeed of 117 miles per hour — twice the speed of the old facilities — and four 750-horsepower motors with 14-foot, eight-bladed carbon fiber fans. It supports free-flight and mounted testing for aircraft, drones, X-planes, parachutes and spacecraft, and it will help test Artemis lunar entry and Mars atmospheric flight concepts while reducing maintenance costs under a GSA partnership.
Facility enables free‑flight testing up to 117 miles per hour.
Context
NASA built the new wind tunnel to modernize testing and replace older Langley facilities. The building combines two previous tunnels and adds higher airspeed and a larger chamber. Researchers can now run free-flight tests for lunar and…
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