SPACEPHOTOS

Engineers operate the controls of the Stability Tunnel. Plans for a new tunnel to study stability problems began in the late thirties. The Stability Tunnel was authorized in 1939 and began operations in June 1941. The installation was finished in December that year with the completion of a new 10,000 Horsepower Diesel-electric generating plant. It was a single return, closed jet tunnel with a 6-foot square test section. The tunnel was disassembled and shipped to Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1958. The tunnel had two separate test sections: one for curved flow, the other for rolling flow. 'The facility... simulates the motion of the aircraft in curved or rolling flight. This is done by actually curving or rolling the airstream as it passes over the model and at the same time providing the proper velocity distribution.'