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Photo, Print, Drawing NASA Langley Research Center, 8-Foot High Speed Wind Tunnel, 641 Thornell Avenue, Hampton, Hampton (Independent City), VA Building No. 641

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[ Photos from Survey HAER VA-118-B  ]

More Resources

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[ Drawings from Survey HAER VA-118-B  ]
[ Data Pages from Survey HAER VA-118-B  ]
[ Photo Captions from Survey HAER VA-118-B  ]

About this Item

Title

  • NASA Langley Research Center, 8-Foot High Speed Wind Tunnel, 641 Thornell Avenue, Hampton, Hampton (Independent City), VA

Other Title

  • Building No. 641

Names

  • Historic American Engineering Record, creator
  • Robinson, Russell G.
  • Hood, Manley J.
  • Jacobs, Eastman N.
  • U.S. Public Works Administration (PWA)
  • Stack, John
  • Orlin, William
  • Wright, Ray H.
  • Ritchie, Virgil S.
  • Whitcomb, Richard
  • Becker, John
  • U.S. National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA)
  • Lewis, George W.
  • Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory
  • U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
  • U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Langley Research Center
  • Wang, Charissa Y., field team
  • Durst, Donald M., field team
  • Herrin, Dean A., project manager
  • Lowe, Jet, photographer
  • Hardlines: Design & Delineation, delineator
  • Stewart, Robert C., historian
  • Cunningham, Chris, photographer
  • Newbill, Michael, researcher
  • Dutton, David H., researcher
  • Anderson, Richard K., Jr., researcher
  • Laird, Matthew R., historian
  • Lowe, Jet, photographer
  • U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), sponsor
  • McPartland, Mary, transmitter

Created / Published

  • Documentation compiled after 1968

Headings

  • -  wind tunnels
  • -  aeronautics
  • -  reinforced concrete construction
  • -  motors
  • -  offices
  • -  Art Deco architectural elements
  • -  testing
  • -  Works Progress Administration
  • -  Virginia--Hampton (Independent City)--Hampton

Latitude / Longitude

  • 37.080895,-76.34137818829

Notes

  • -  Significance: The facility was authorized in July 1933 and built by the Public Works Administration for $26,000. It tested complete models of aircraft and aircraft components in a high-speed airstream approaching the speed of sound. Originally capable of testing at Mach 0.75, it was repowered in the 1940s and early 1950s to have a Mach 1.2 potential. The most important contribution of the HST was defining the causes and cures for the sever adverse stability and control problems encountered in high-speed dives. This tunnel also produced the high-speed cowling shapes used in World War II aircraft, and efficient air inlets for jet aircraft. The first 500-MPH analyses of propellers were made here early in the war. After repowering, the 8-Foot Tunnel produced precise transonic data up to Mach numbers as high as 0.92 for such aircraft as the X-1, D-558, and others. Its final achievement was the development and use in routine operations of the first transonic slotted throat. The investigations of wing-body shapes in this tunnel led to Richard Whitcomb's discovery of the transonic area rule. The HST developed an impressive record in aviation history as an example of accomplishment by imaginative researchers.
  • -  Survey number: HAER VA-118-B
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1936 Initial Construction
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1944 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1945 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1950 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1946 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1966 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1985 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 2011 Demolished

Medium

  • Photo(s): 29
  • Measured Drawing(s): 1
  • Data Page(s): 45
  • Photo Caption Page(s): 4

Call Number/Physical Location

  • HAER VA,28-HAMP,4B-

Source Collection

  • Historic American Engineering Record (Library of Congress)

Repository

Control Number

  • va1795

Rights Advisory

Online Format

  • image
  • pdf

Rights & Access

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  • Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html
  • Reproduction Number: ---
  • Call Number: HAER VA,28-HAMP,4B-
  • 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, Russell G Robinson, Manley J Hood, Eastman N Jacobs, U.S. Public Works Administration, John Stack, William Orlin, et al., Lowe, Jet, Chris Cunningham, and Jet Lowe, photographer. NASA Langley Research Center, 8-Foot High Speed Wind Tunnel, 641 Thornell Avenue, Hampton, Hampton Independent City, VA. Independent City Virginia Hampton, 1968. translateds by Mcpartland, Marymitter Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/va1795/.

APA citation style:

Historic American Engineering Record, C., Robinson, R. G., Hood, M. J., Jacobs, E. N., U.S. Public Works Administration, Stack, J. [...] U.S. National Aeronautics And Space Administration, S., Lowe, J., Cunningham, C. & Lowe, J., photographer. (1968) NASA Langley Research Center, 8-Foot High Speed Wind Tunnel, 641 Thornell Avenue, Hampton, Hampton Independent City, VA. Independent City Virginia Hampton, 1968. McPartland, M., trans Documentation Compiled After. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/va1795/.

MLA citation style:

Historic American Engineering Record, Creator, et al., photographers by Lowe, Jet, Chris Cunningham, and Jet Lowe. NASA Langley Research Center, 8-Foot High Speed Wind Tunnel, 641 Thornell Avenue, Hampton, Hampton Independent City, VA. trans by Mcpartland, Marymitter Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/va1795/>.