16-Foot Transonic Tunnel Building (1146) - NASA Langley Historic District - Hampton, VA - NRHP Historic Districts - Contributing Buildings on Waymarking.com

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In the late 1930s, the Special Committee on Future Research Facilities proposed the construction at Langley of a wind tunnel with a 16-foot diameter test section that could evaluate the cowling and cooling of full-sized aircraft engines and propellers. Approval for construction was granted in 1939, and the new 16-Foot High Speed Tunnel (HST) became operational in November 1941 and began testing on December 5, 1941, just two days before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Later in the war, in addition to engine cooling work, testing focused on wing/aileron/elevator flutter problems and bomb/bomb fuse aerodynamics (possibly including the first atomic bombs according to several sources).

While the 16-Foot HST was never Langley's largest or fastest wind tunnel, it did play an important role in the postwar evolution of tunnel design. In the late 1940s, Langley physicist Ray H. Wright observed that the interference caused by wind tunnel walls could be minimized by placing slots in the test section throat, a concept that came to be known as "slotted throat" or "slotted wall tunnel" design. Testing this new design in the 16-Foot HST, Langley engineers found that it allowed for transonic speeds (up to and beyond the speed of sound, Mach 1, approximately 761 mph at sea level). Retrofitted with a new slotted test section throat and re-powered to 60,000 hp, the facility was re-designated the 16-Foot Transonic Tunnel (TT) in December 1950. Work on the slotted test section in the 16-Foot HST was instrumental in Langley winning the Collier Trophy in 1951.

The 16-Foot TT remained an important test facility through the Cold War era and beyond, with virtually every military airplane design undergoing testing in the tunnel. A partial list of these aircraft include the B-58 Hustler, F-100 Super Sabre, F-111 Aardvark, F-14 Tomcat, F-15 Eagle, F-18 Hornet, C-5 Galaxy, F-117 Nighthawk, B-1 Lancer, B-2 Spirit and X-45 UCAV, as well as the Apollo/Saturn moon mission spacecraft, the Space Shuttle, and the Boeing X-40 (test vehicle for the USAF X-37 Reusable Launch Vehicle). The tunnel also supported experimental programs such as the X-1, X-15, Highly Maneuverable Aircraft Technology (HiMAT) and the Joint Advanced Strike Technology (JAST). Rehabilitation efforts in 1969, 1977, and 1989-90 kept the 16-Foot TT equipped with state-of-the-art testing facilities, but with the end of the Cold War, NASA was faced with a surplus of tunnels across the country. Under the Wind Tunnel Enterprise program established in 1994, the 16-Foot TT provided testing facilities to clients in private industry such as Boeing, covering its $10 million annual operating budget with customer fees. NASA finally closed the facility in 2004.

During the long history of the 16-Foot Transonic Tunnel, the tunnel staff managed several other test facilities that added significantly to its test capabilities. These test facilities included:

Outdoor static (no external flow) engine/propeller test stand. Photographs indicate that this existed as early as 1943.
Annular Transonic Tunnel. This facility was based on the “whirling arm” concept and was located in Building 1234 from 1947 to 1952.
Small circular “parasite” test sections. These parasite sections operated at speeds up to Mach 1.6 by sucking outside air through a long diffuser into the low-pressure test section of the 16-Foot HST. The Collier Trophy winning slotted test section was first proved to work in one of these test sections in 1947. (Photos)
Jet Exit Facility (JETF). After the Annular Transonic Tunnel was removed and piston engines were mostly superseded by jet engines, Building 1234 housed the JETF where jet nozzle designs were researched. Much of the nonaxisymmetric (2-D) nozzle and thrust vectoring nozzle technology used on many current military aircraft was developed in this facility. The facility was demolished in 2011.
4 x 4-Foot Supersonic Pressure Tunnel. Around 1970, the 16-Foot Transonic Tunnel staff became responsible for the operation of this supersonic tunnel that was located beside the 16’TT drive control building. This capability allowed 16’TT staff to test vehicles such as the F-14 Tomcat and F-15 Eagle throughout their entire subsonic/transonic/supersonic flight envelope. The last research run in the facility was made on a Single-Engine High-Pressure Air Nacelle Model on September 2, 1976 and the "official" tunnel retirement date was September 3, 1976. The 4 x 4-Foot Supersonic Pressure Tunnel was decommissioned in 1977 and later demolished; the National Transonic Facility (NTF) was later built on the site.
16- by 24-Inch Water Tunnel. To provide a cheap capability for flow visualization over complex configurations, the 16’TT staff operated a water tunnel in Building 1234 during the 1980’s and 1990’s. True to the 16’TT mission, models tested in the facility could simulate inlet and exhaust flows. This facility was demolished sometime in the 1990’s.

The 16-Foot tunnel circuit was demolished in 2011. The only remaining structure is the brick office building. The lintel over the building's entrance features the logo of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in bas-relief, the only example of the "NACA Wings" logo that still appears on any building at NASA Langley Research Center.

Name of Historic District (as listed on the NRHP): NASA Langley Research Center National Historic District Link to nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com page with the Historic District: [Web Link] NRHP Historic District Waymark (Optional): [Web Link] Address: 16-Foot Transonic Tunnel Building 1146 NASA Langley Research Center Hampton, VA 23681 How did you determine the building to be a contributing structure?: Narrative found on the internet (Link provided below) Optional link to narrative or database: [Web Link]

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