VIII. AERONAUTICS 



This chapter deals with big science facilities in the area of 

 aeronautics. This includes principally wind tunnels, other flight 

 simulators, and facilities for structures research and development 

 and flight testing. Many of these facilities may be engaged to a 

 significant extent in big engineering science and could have been in- 

 cluded in chapter X and appendix 11 just as appropriately as here. 



All but one of the big science facilities discussed in this chap- 

 ter are U.S. facilities, the exception being a Japanese wind tunnel. 

 No other foreign aeronautical big science facilities meeting the $25 

 million criterion have been identified. The facilities are listed 

 in table 10 and discussed briefly in appendix 9. The majority of 

 the wind tunnels and flight simulators are operated by NASA, although 

 the Navy operates two wind tunnels, the Air Force four, and the Air 

 Force and Army each operate one flight simulator facility. 



The NASA wind tunnel and flight simulator program is defined as 

 advancing knowledge of aerodynamics, aviation, and aerospace. Many 

 of these facilities were constructed in the 19AOs and 1950s, with 

 funding provided in later years for modifications and updates. The 

 most recent wind tunnel facility is the National Transonic Facility 

 at Langley Research Center, built in 1982. The National Transonic 

 Facility is a state-of-the-art facility used for the most advanced 

 aerospace testing programs. Of the remaining NASA facilities, sev- 

 eral are complexes of smaller wind tunnel projects which NASA consi- 

 ders as together constituting single facilities. 



All of the NASA facilities included here have the classic big 

 science purpose of "science for science's sake," with two important 

 qualifications. The first is that, although the stated need and 

 purpose of the facilities are for science, there is some crossover 

 into testing of instrumentation, maneuverability of aircraft, and 

 testing of vertical rising aircraft. This is true of almost all of 

 the facilities listed here. Their primary purpose, however, as de- 

 fined by NASA, is for conducting science. Second, the percentage of 

 use of these facilities for civil, proprietary and cooperative, and 

 military purposes when known, are given in the appendix. Although 

 for several of these facilities the non-NASA use is somewhat high, 

 these facilities still are considered to be used primarily for sci- 

 ence. Even the 8x6 Tran/Supersonic Tunnel at Lewis Research Center 

 with 55 percent use by civil, proprietary, and cooperative ventures, 

 is still considered by NASA as being a basic research center. 



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