NASA’s newest wind tunnel in 40 years opens in Virginia

NASA opened its newest wind tunnel, the Flight Dynamics Research Facility, giving the agency and its partners a critical new resource for testing the safety and performance of future aircraft, rockets and space exploration vehicles, the agency said in a July 31 press release.

The facility, located at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, will support advances in aircraft safety, X-plane development, drone research and spacecraft technology, according to the agency. It will enable both free-flight and mounted testing of scale-model vehicles designed to travel through an atmosphere, ranging from airplanes to space capsules returning to Earth, NASA said.

“The Flight Dynamics Research Facility is NASA’s first major new wind tunnel in more than 40 years and gives us a powerful new platform to test the ideas and technologies that will shape the future of aviation and exploration,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in the release. He said the facility will give NASA and its partners the tools to continue pushing technological boundaries and help ensure “America remains the world leader in air and space.”

A ribbon-cutting ceremony at NASA Langley on July 31 marked the facility’s opening. Dr. Trina Dyal, the center’s director, called it “a significant advancement for NASA and for the nation,” saying that bringing modernized testing capabilities under one roof will enable transformative research.

The facility was built in partnership with the U.S. General Services Administration and replaces aging infrastructure with an energy-efficient building, according to NASA. It marks the fourth new building GSA has delivered to NASA under Langley’s 20-year campus revitalization plan. GSA Administrator Edward C. Forst called it an asset that will “power the next generation of American dominance in aeronautics and space exploration.”

The 25,000-square-foot facility combines and upgrades the capabilities of two historic Langley wind tunnels — the 20-Foot Vertical Spin Tunnel and the 12-Foot Low-Speed Tunnel, NASA said. Its 20-foot-diameter test chamber is significantly larger than the chambers in its predecessors, allowing more air to pass around test models, improving data accuracy and accommodating larger, more detailed models, according to the agency.

The facility’s top airspeed of 117 mph is twice that of the older tunnels it replaces, NASA said, enabling free-flight tests of heavier scale models and simulations of full-scale vehicles at higher altitudes. The agency said that capability is critical for studying aircraft stability and the reentry of spacecraft capsules. The tunnel’s wind power comes from four 750-horsepower motors, each with an integrated 14-foot-diameter, eight-bladed fan made of lightweight carbon fiber.

NASA said the facility will play a key role in testing vehicle designs for entry, descent and landing as the agency pursues a sustained human presence on the lunar surface through its Artemis program and develops a Moon Base. The wind tunnel also could help NASA design aircraft for Mars and other destinations where atmospheric flight is possible.

The facility is managed under NASA’s Aerosciences Evaluation and Test Capabilities portfolio in the Aeronautics Division of the agency’s Research and Technology Mission Directorate.