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Photo, Print, Drawing Altitude Wind Tunnel, NASA Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field, Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, OH

[ Data Pages from Survey HAER OH-132  ]

About this Item

Title

  • Altitude Wind Tunnel, NASA Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field, Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, OH

Names

  • Historic American Engineering Record, creator
  • Young, Alfred
  • Monroe, Louis
  • Marcus, Larry
  • Friedman, Harold
  • Bioletti, Carl
  • Vincenti, Walter
  • Macomber, John
  • Massa, Manfred
  • National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA)
  • Carrier Corporation
  • Sam W. Emerson Company
  • Pittsburgh-Des Moines Steel Company
  • Collier Construction Company
  • General Electric Company
  • York Corporation
  • Arthur E. Magher Company
  • Armstrong Cork Company
  • Norris Brothers
  • Robert M. Pelkey, Inc.
  • Timoshenko, Stephen
  • Lewis, George
  • Sverdrup Corporation
  • Arrighi, Robert S., historian
  • National Aeronautics and Space Administration, sponsor

Created / Published

  • Documentation compiled after 1968

Headings

  • -  wind tunnels
  • -  aeronautics
  • -  national space program
  • -  compressors
  • -  testing laboratories
  • -  control rooms
  • -  Ohio -- Cuyahoga County -- Cleveland

Latitude / Longitude

  • 41.41471,-81.86227

Notes

  • -  See also HAER OH-134 for documentation of the support buildings.
  • -  Significance: The Altitude Wind Tunnel (AWT) was the first wind tunnel in the United States, and possibly the world, capable of operating full-scale aircraft engines in conditions that replicated those actually encountered by aircraft during flight. In 1904, the NACA lacked a facility capable of testing modern full-scale engines. At the time that the AWT was constructed, it was claimed that the tunnel and its support buildings were the most costly grouping of equipment assembled to test a single engine. The AWT required more electricity to operate than the entire city of Columbus, Ohio, and the design required more engineering man-hours than that for the Boulder Dam. Although the AWT was initially constructed to study reciprocating engines during World War II, the AWT's first 10 years were spent almost exclusively on improving the new technologies associated with turbojet, ramjet, and turboprop engines. Every early turbojet design and many of the second- and third-generation models were studied in the AWT. These tests included the nation's first jet aircraft (the Airacomet), the Bell YP-59A, the Westinghouse 18XB jet engine, and the Pratt & Whitney J57 engine. During this period, the tunnel contributed significantly to the improved capabilities of the turbojet through a steady stream of investigations on a number of engines. The AWT also played a primary role in resolving cooling problems for the B-29 bomber's Wright R-3350 engines during World War II. In the late 1950s, the facility shifted its focus to space, and the AWT's larger interior was used for Project Mercury qualification testing.
  • -  Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N1521
  • -  Survey number: HAER OH-132
  • -  Building/structure dates: 2009 Demolished
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1942-1944 Initial Construction
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1945 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1951 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1953 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1957 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1958-1959 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1961 Subsequent Work

Medium

  • Data Page(s): 121

Call Number/Physical Location

  • HAER OH-132

Source Collection

  • Historic American Engineering Record (Library of Congress)

Repository

Control Number

  • oh1998

Rights Advisory

Online Format

  • pdf

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  • Reproduction Number: ---
  • Call Number: HAER OH-132
  • Access Advisory: ---

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Historic American Engineering Record, Creator, Alfred Young, Louis Monroe, Larry Marcus, Harold Friedman, Carl Bioletti, Walter Vincenti, et al. Altitude Wind Tunnel, NASA Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field, Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, OH. Ohio Cuyahoga County Cleveland, 1968. Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/oh1998/.

APA citation style:

Historic American Engineering Record, C., Young, A., Monroe, L., Marcus, L., Friedman, H., Bioletti, C. [...] National Aeronautics And Space Administration, S. (1968) Altitude Wind Tunnel, NASA Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field, Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, OH. Ohio Cuyahoga County Cleveland, 1968. Documentation Compiled After. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/oh1998/.

MLA citation style:

Historic American Engineering Record, Creator, et al. Altitude Wind Tunnel, NASA Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field, Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, OH. Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/oh1998/>.