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67-512: Although vertical wind tunnels have been built for aerodynamic research, the most high-profile are those used as recreational wind tunnels, frequently advertised as indoor skydiving or bodyflight , which have also become a popular training tool for skydivers. A recreational wind tunnel enables human beings to experience the sensation of flight without planes or parachutes, through the force of wind being generated vertically. Air moves upwards at approximately 195 km/h (120 mph or 55 m/s ),

134-505: A whirling arm apparatus to determine drag and did some of the first experiments in aviation theory. Sir George Cayley (1773–1857) also used a whirling arm to measure the drag and lift of various airfoils. His whirling arm was 5 feet (1.5 m) long and attained top speeds between 10 and 20 feet per second (3 to 6 m/s). Otto Lilienthal used a rotating arm to accurately measure wing airfoils with varying angles of attack , establishing their lift-to-drag ratio polar diagrams, but

201-409: A body or system of bodies in the air flow. It is one of the most dynamically developing sports in the world. In the windtunnel sport parachuting and skydiving, bodyflight is performed by applying air flow on certain parts of a body, to control the body any muscular forces can be used. As a tool for learning to control the body flight, there is a vertical wind tunnel , which makes it possible to fly in

268-505: A centrifugal blower in 1897, and determined the drag coefficients of flat plates, cylinders and spheres. Danish inventor Poul la Cour applied wind tunnels in his process of developing and refining the technology of wind turbines in the early 1890s. Carl Rickard Nyberg used a wind tunnel when designing his Flugan from 1897 and onwards. In a classic set of experiments, the Englishman Osborne Reynolds (1842–1912) of

335-400: A controller in constant view of the flyers. Wind speed can be adjusted at many vertical wind tunnels, usually between 130 and 300 km/h (80 and 185 mph, or 35 and 80 m/s ), to accommodate the abilities of an individual and to compensate for variable body drag during advanced acrobatics. Indoor skydiving also appeals to the mass market audience that are afraid of heights , since in

402-520: A dramatic effect for the flying person and the spectators, because there are no walls around the flight area. These vertical wind tunnels allow people to fly with a full or partial outdoor/sky view. Outdoor vertical wind tunnels may also have walls or netting around the wind column, to keep beginner tunnel flyers from falling out of the tunnel. Stationary indoor vertical wind tunnels include recirculating and non-recirculating types. Non-recirculating vertical wind tunnels usually suck air through inlets near

469-483: A factor), and so is not directly useful for accurate measurements. The air moving through the tunnel needs to be relatively turbulence-free and laminar . To correct this problem, closely spaced vertical and horizontal air vanes are used to smooth out the turbulent airflow before reaching the subject of the testing. Due to the effects of viscosity , the cross-section of a wind tunnel is typically circular rather than square, because there will be greater flow constriction in

536-497: A flexible strip. The strip is attached to the aerodynamic surface with tape, and it sends signals depicting the pressure distribution along its surface. Pressure distributions on a test model can also be determined by performing a wake survey , in which either a single pitot tube is used to obtain multiple readings downstream of the test model, or a multiple-tube manometer is mounted downstream and all its readings are taken. The aerodynamic properties of an object can not all remain

603-405: A pair of fans driven by 4,000 hp (3,000 kW) electric motors. The layout was a double-return, closed-loop format and could accommodate many full-size real aircraft as well as scale models. The tunnel was eventually closed and, even though it was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1995, demolition began in 2010. Until World War II, the world's largest wind tunnel, built in 1932–1934,

670-417: A safe distance before opening parachutes. The flight pose is the body position controlled by the muscular effort in the air flow. There are many different poses, including "mantis", "bumblebee", and "dragon". Flight movement is the movement or rotation of a body in the air flow in a certain direction. Flight transit is a transition from one flight pose to another (changing the areas of the body, affected by

737-707: A vertical wind tunnel and founded the US Company "Sky Venture" in July 1998. This tunnel is specifically designed to simulate the free fall skydiving experience. Popularity grew quickly and the Orlando, FL site was visited by former U.S. President George H.W. Bush. After the initial location continued to rise in popularity, the rights were sold to Alan Metni , who divided the company into a manufacturing and distribution company (Sky Venture) and public experience company (iFly) which now operates or has licensed tunnels to over 80 locations around

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804-413: A vertical wind tunnel are often called 'tunnel rats', much like frequent visitors to ski slopes are called 'ski bums'. Some body flying enthusiasts develop their tunnel-flying skills not for sky diving training, but in order to be able to give professional performances. Wind tunnel Wind tunnels are machines in which objects are held stationary inside a tube, and air is blown around it to study

871-528: A vertical wind tunnel was Jack Tiffany in 1964 at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base located in Greene and Montgomery County, Ohio. In 1982 Jean St-Germain, an inventor from Drummondville, Quebec, sold a vertical wind tunnel concept to both Les Thompson and Marvin Kratter, both of whom went on to build their own wind tunnels. Soon after, St Germain sold the franchising rights to Kratter for $ 1.5 million. Originally known as

938-449: A vertical wind tunnel, one only floats a few meters above trampoline-type netting. Indoor vertical wind tunnels contain the person within a chamber through the use of walls. While wind tunnel flying is considered a low impact activity, it does exert some strain on the flier's back, neck, and shoulders. Therefore, people with shoulder dislocations or back/neck problems should check with a doctor first. While actual skydiving out of an aircraft

1005-431: A wind tunnel type of test during an actual flight in order to refine the computational model. Where external turbulent flow is present, CFD is not practical due to limitations in present-day computing resources. For example, an area that is still much too complex for the use of CFD is determining the effects of flow on and around structures, bridges, and terrain. The most effective way to simulative external turbulent flow

1072-405: Is blown or sucked through a duct equipped with a viewing port and instrumentation where models or geometrical shapes are mounted for study. Typically the air is moved through the tunnel using a series of fans. For very large wind tunnels several meters in diameter, a single large fan is not practical, and so instead an array of multiple fans are used in parallel to provide sufficient airflow. Due to

1139-523: Is for understanding exhaust gas dispersion patterns for hospitals, laboratories, and other emitting sources. Other examples of boundary layer wind tunnel applications are assessments of pedestrian comfort and snow drifting. Wind tunnel modeling is accepted as a method for aiding in green building design. For instance, the use of boundary layer wind tunnel modeling can be used as a credit for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification through

1206-469: Is held stationary. The object can be an aerodynamic test object such as a cylinder or an airfoil, an individual component of an aircraft, a small model of the vehicle, or, in the largest tunnels, even a full-sized vehicle. Different measurements can be taken from these tests. The aerodynamic forces on the entire object can be measured, or on individual components of it. The air pressure at different points can be measured with sensors. Smoke can be introduced into

1273-416: Is particularly important in open cockpit race cars such as Indycar and Formula One. Excessive lift forces on the helmet can cause considerable neck strain on the driver, and flow separation on the back side of the helmet can cause turbulent buffeting and thus blurred vision for the driver at high speeds. The advances in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling on high-speed digital computers has reduced

1340-577: Is subject to age limitations which vary from country to country, and even from state to state in the US, bodyflying has no set lower or upper limits. A number of competitions based on indoor skydiving have emerged, such as the FAI World Cup of Indoor Skydiving and the Windoor Wind Games . Bodyflight Bodyflight , or body flight , is the term in the skydiving , which means staying or moving of

1407-409: Is through the use of a boundary layer wind tunnel. There are many applications for boundary layer wind tunnel modeling. For example, understanding the impact of wind on high-rise buildings, factories, bridges, etc. can help building designers construct a structure that stands up to wind effects in the most efficient manner possible. Another significant application for boundary layer wind tunnel modeling

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1474-470: Is usually smoother and more controlled than that of an outdoor unit. Indoor tunnels are more temperature-controllable, so they are operated year-round even in cold climates. Various propellers and fan types can be used as the mechanism to move air through a vertical wind tunnel. Motors can either be diesel-powered or electric-powered, and typically provide a vertical column of air between 6 and 16 feet wide. A control unit allows for air speed adjustment by

1541-520: The University of Manchester demonstrated that the airflow pattern over a scale model would be the same for the full-scale vehicle if a certain flow parameter were the same in both cases. This factor, now known as the Reynolds number , is a basic parameter in the description of all fluid-flow situations, including the shapes of flow patterns, the ease of heat transfer, and the onset of turbulence. This comprises

1608-417: The static pressure , and (for compressible flow only) the temperature rise in the airflow. The direction of airflow around a model can be determined by tufts of yarn attached to the aerodynamic surfaces. The direction of airflow approaching a surface can be visualized by mounting threads in the airflow ahead of and aft of the test model. Smoke or bubbles of liquid can be introduced into the airflow upstream of

1675-435: The terminal velocity of a falling human body belly-downwards. A vertical wind tunnel is frequently called 'indoor skydiving' due to the popularity of vertical wind tunnels among skydivers, who report that the sensation is extremely similar to skydiving. The human body 'floats' in midair in a vertical wind tunnel, replicating the physics of 'body flight' or ' bodyflight ' experienced during freefall . The first human to fly in

1742-693: The "Aérodium", it was patented as the "Levitationarium" by Jean St. Germain in the USA in 1984 and 1994 under Patent Nos. 4,457,509 and 5,318,481, respectively. The first reference, in print, to a Vertical Wind Tunnel specifically for parachuting was published in CANPARA (the Canadian Sport Parachuting Magazine) in 1979. St. Germain then helped build two wind tunnels in America. The first vertical wind tunnel built intended purely for commercial use opened in

1809-413: The 1960s, wind tunnel testing began to receive widespread adoption for automobiles , not so much to determine aerodynamic forces in the same way as an airplane, but to increase the fuel efficiency of vehicles by reducing the aerodynamic drag. In these studies, the interaction between the road and the vehicle plays a significant role, and this interaction must be taken into consideration when interpreting

1876-519: The U.S. Green Building Council. Wind tunnel tests in a boundary layer wind tunnel allow for the natural drag of the Earth's surface to be simulated. For accuracy, it is important to simulate the mean wind speed profile and turbulence effects within the atmospheric boundary layer. Most codes and standards recognize that wind tunnel testing can produce reliable information for designers, especially when their projects are in complex terrain or on exposed sites. In

1943-459: The United States as part of the plan to exploit German technology developments. For limited applications, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) can supplement or possibly replace the use of wind tunnels. For example, the experimental rocket plane SpaceShipOne was designed without any use of wind tunnels. However, on one test, flight threads were attached to the surface of the wings, performing

2010-403: The United States, many wind tunnels have been decommissioned from 1990 to 2010, including some historic facilities. Pressure is brought to bear on remaining wind tunnels due to declining or erratic usage, high electricity costs, and in some cases the high value of the real estate upon which the facility sits. On the other hand, CFD validation still requires wind-tunnel data, and this is likely to be

2077-534: The above, however, that they were simply using the accepted technology of the day, though this was not yet a common technology in America. In France , Gustave Eiffel (1832–1923) built his first open-return wind tunnel in 1909, powered by a 67 hp (50 kW) electric motor, at Champs-de-Mars, near the foot of the tower that bears his name. Between 1909 and 1912 Eiffel ran about 4,000 tests in his wind tunnel, and his systematic experimentation set new standards for aeronautical research. In 1912 Eiffel's laboratory

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2144-457: The air flow). Bodyflight is accomplished via increasing/decreasing the drag of your body, using arms and legs as rudders for bodyflight motion control, as well as other techniques similar to that of an airplane. Professional athletes who fly through the air for long distances, such as ski jumping , have also used certain bodyflight techniques to increase jumping distance by manipulating their bodies to be more airfoil -like. Frequent visitors to

2211-484: The air standing still and an aircraft moving, an object would be held still and the air moved around it. In this way, a stationary observer could study the flying object in action, and could measure the aerodynamic forces acting on it. The development of wind tunnels accompanied the development of the airplane. Large wind tunnels were built during World War II, and as supersonic aircraft were developed, supersonic wind tunnels were constructed to test them. Wind tunnel testing

2278-500: The air, simulating free fall due to the created air flow (on average, about 190 km/h). Bodyflight includes various flight poses, movements and flight transits, when combined, flight elements (tricks) are formed. Also this include turns, rolls, lateral movement, fall rate control, and other acrobatics in the air. The skill of bodyflight makes it possible for skydivers to fly closer to each other while they are falling, to allow them to link together in formation skydiving , then fly apart to

2345-400: The airstream to show the path that air takes around the object. Or, small threads can be attached to specific parts to show the airflow at those points. The earliest wind tunnels were invented towards the end of the 19th century, in the early days of aeronautical research, as part of the effort to develop heavier-than-air flying machines. The wind tunnel reversed the usual situation. Instead of

2412-586: The answers out of a wind tunnel." In 1941 the US constructed one of the largest wind tunnels at that time at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio. This wind tunnel starts at 45 feet (14 m) and narrows to 20 feet (6.1 m) in diameter. Two 40-foot (12 m) fans were driven by a 40,000 hp electric motor. Large scale aircraft models could be tested at air speeds of 400 mph (640 km/h). During WWII, Germany developed different designs of large wind tunnels to further their knowledge of aeronautics. For example,

2479-458: The bottom of the building, through the bodyflight area, and exhaust through the top of the building. Recirculating wind tunnels form an aerodynamic loop with turning vanes, similar to a scientific wind tunnel , but using a vertical loop with a bodyflight chamber within a vertical part of the loop. Recirculating wind tunnels are usually built in climates that are too cold for non-recirculating wind tunnels. The airflow of an indoor vertical wind tunnel

2546-624: The building will collapse. Determining such forces was required before building codes could specify the required strength of such buildings and these tests continue to be used for large or unusual buildings. Wind tunnel testing was first applied to automobiles as early as the 1920s, on cars such as the Rumpler Tropfenwagen , and later the Chrysler Airflow . Initially, automakers would test out scale models of their cars, but later, full scale automotive wind tunnels were built. Starting in

2613-546: The case for the foreseeable future. Studies have been done and others are underway to assess future military and commercial wind tunnel needs, but the outcome remains uncertain. More recently an increasing use of jet-powered, instrumented unmanned vehicles, or research drones, have replaced some of the traditional uses of wind tunnels. The world's fastest wind tunnel as of 2019 is the LENS-X wind tunnel, located in Buffalo, New York. Air

2680-478: The central scientific justification for the use of models in wind tunnels to simulate real-life phenomena. However, there are limitations on conditions in which dynamic similarity is based upon the Reynolds number alone. The Wright brothers ' use of a simple wind tunnel in 1901 to study the effects of airflow over various shapes while developing their Wright Flyer was in some ways revolutionary. It can be seen from

2747-428: The corners of a square tunnel that can make the flow turbulent. A circular tunnel provides a smoother flow. The inside facing of the tunnel is typically as smooth as possible, to reduce surface drag and turbulence that could impact the accuracy of the testing. Even smooth walls induce some drag into the airflow, and so the object being tested is usually kept near the center of the tunnel, with an empty buffer zone between

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2814-403: The demand for wind tunnel testing, but has not completely eliminated it. Many real-world problems can still not be modeled accurately enough by CFD to eliminate the need for physical tests in wind tunnels. Air velocity and pressures are measured in several ways in wind tunnels. Air velocity through the test section is determined by Bernoulli's principle . Measurement of the dynamic pressure ,

2881-414: The direction of smoke from a ship's stack, to whether a given airplane would fly. Progress at Aachen, I felt, would be virtually impossible without a good wind tunnel. When von Kármán began to consult with Caltech he worked with Clark Millikan and Arthur L. Klein. He objected to their design and insisted on a return flow making the device "independent of the fluctuations of the outside atmosphere". It

2948-416: The end of the war, Germany had at least three different supersonic wind tunnels, with one capable of Mach 4.4 (heated) airflows. A large wind tunnel under construction near Oetztal , Austria would have had two fans directly driven by two 50,000 horsepower hydraulic turbines . The installation was not completed by the end of the war and the dismantled equipment was shipped to Modane , France in 1946 where it

3015-473: The first enclosed wind tunnel in 1871. Once this breakthrough had been achieved, detailed technical data was rapidly extracted by the use of this tool. Wenham and his colleague John Browning are credited with many fundamental discoveries, including the measurement of l/d ratios, and the revelation of the beneficial effects of a high aspect ratio . Konstantin Tsiolkovsky built an open-section wind tunnel with

3082-420: The interaction between the object and the moving air. They are used to test the aerodynamic effects of aircraft , rockets , cars , and buildings . Different wind tunnels range in size from less than a foot across, to over 100 feet (30 m), and can have air that moves at speeds from a light breeze to hypersonic velocities. Usually, large fans move air through the wind tunnel, while the object being tested

3149-431: The pressure at each hole. Pressure distributions can more conveniently be measured by the use of pressure-sensitive paint , in which higher local pressure is indicated by lowered fluorescence of the paint at that point. Pressure distributions can also be conveniently measured by the use of pressure-sensitive pressure belts , a recent development in which multiple ultra-miniaturized pressure sensor modules are integrated into

3216-588: The same for a scaled model. However, by observing certain similarity rules, a very satisfactory correspondence between the aerodynamic properties of a scaled model and a full-size object can be achieved. The choice of similarity parameters depends on the purpose of the test, but the most important conditions to satisfy are usually: In certain particular test cases, other similarity parameters must be satisfied, such as e.g. Froude number . English military engineer and mathematician Benjamin Robins (1707–1751) invented

3283-403: The sheer volume and speed of air movement required, the fans may be powered by stationary turbofan engines rather than electric motors. The airflow created by the fans that is entering the tunnel is itself highly turbulent due to the fan blade motion (when the fan is blowing air into the test section – when it is sucking air out of the test section downstream, the fan-blade turbulence is not

3350-579: The summer of 1982 in Las Vegas , Nevada . Later that same year, a second wind tunnel opened in Pigeon Forge , Tennessee . Both facilities opened and operated under the name of Flyaway Indoor Skydiving. In 2005 the 15-year Flyaway Manager Keith Fields purchased the Las Vegas facility and later renamed it "Vegas Indoor Skydiving". In the 1990s William Kitchen , an inventor living in Orlando, FL filed patents for

3417-426: The test model, and their path around the model can be photographed (see particle image velocimetry ). Aerodynamic forces on the test model are usually measured with beam balances , connected to the test model with beams, strings, or cables. The pressure distributions across the test model have historically been measured by drilling many small holes along the airflow path, and using multi-tube manometers to measure

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3484-556: The test results. In the real world, the vehicle is moving while the road and air are stationary. In a wind tunnel test, the road must also be moved past a vehicle along with air being blown around it. This has been accomplished with moving belts under the test vehicle to simulate the moving road, and very similar devices are used in wind tunnel testing of aircraft take-off and landing configurations. Sporting equipment has also studied in wind tunnels, including golf clubs, golf balls, bobsleds, cyclists, and race car helmets. Helmet aerodynamics

3551-459: The wind stream is upwards for the testing of models in spin situations and the concepts and engineering designs for the first primitive helicopters flown in the US. Later research into airflows near or above the speed of sound used a related approach. Metal pressure chambers were used to store high-pressure air which was then accelerated through a nozzle designed to provide supersonic flow. The observation or instrumentation chamber ("test section")

3618-404: The wind tunnel at Peenemünde was a novel wind tunnel design that allowed for high-speed airflow research, but brought several design challenges regarding constructing a high-speed wind tunnel at scale. However, it successfully used some large natural caves which were increased in size by excavation and then sealed to store large volumes of air which could then be routed through the wind tunnels. By

3685-565: The world at that time at the Washington Navy Yard. The inlet was almost 11 feet (3.4 m) in diameter and the discharge part was 7 feet (2.1 m) in diameter. A 500 hp (370 kW) electric motor drove the paddle type fan blades. In 1931 the NACA built a 30 by 60 feet (9.1 by 18.3 m) full-scale wind tunnel at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The tunnel was powered by

3752-509: The world, including 5 cruise ships, with more in the works. Another milestone in vertical wind tunnel history was 'Wind Machine' at the closing ceremonies of the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics . This was a custom-built unit by Aerodium (Latvia/Canada) for the closing ceremony. Many people had never seen a vertical wind tunnel before, and were fascinated by the flying humans with no wires. A vertical wind tunnel performance in Moscow 's Red Square

3819-545: Was Theodore von Kármán 's teacher at Göttingen University and suggested the construction of a wind tunnel for tests of airships they were designing. The vortex street of turbulence downstream of a cylinder was tested in the tunnel. When he later moved to Aachen University he recalled use of this facility: I remembered the wind tunnel in Göttingen was started as a tool for studies of Zeppelin behavior, but that it had proven to be valuable for everything else from determining

3886-454: Was an arrangement followed by a number of wind tunnels later built; in fact the open-return low-speed wind tunnel is often called the Eiffel-type wind tunnel. Subsequent use of wind tunnels proliferated as the science of aerodynamics and discipline of aeronautical engineering were established and air travel and power were developed. The US Navy in 1916 built one of the largest wind tunnels in

3953-513: Was completed in 1930 and used for Northrop Alpha testing. In 1939 General Arnold asked what was required to advance the USAF, and von Kármán answered, "The first step is to build the right wind tunnel." On the other hand, after the successes of the Bell X-2 and prospect of more advanced research, he wrote, "I was in favor of constructing such a plane because I have never believed that you can get all

4020-488: Was considered of strategic importance during the Cold War for development of aircraft and missiles. Other problems are also studied with wind tunnels. The effects of wind on man-made structures need to be studied when buildings became tall enough to be significantly affected by the wind. Very tall buildings present large surfaces to the wind, and the resulting forces have to be resisted by the building's internal structure or else

4087-542: Was lacking the notions of induced drag and Reynolds numbers . However, the whirling arm does not produce a reliable flow of air impacting the test shape at a normal incidence. Centrifugal forces and the fact that the object is moving in its own wake mean that detailed examination of the airflow is difficult. Francis Herbert Wenham (1824–1908), a Council Member of the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain , addressed these issues by inventing, designing and operating

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4154-451: Was located in a suburb of Paris, Chalais-Meudon , France. It was designed to test full-size aircraft and had six large fans driven by high powered electric motors. The Chalais-Meudon wind tunnel was used by ONERA under the name S1Ch until 1976 in the development of, e.g., the Caravelle and Concorde airplanes. Today, this wind tunnel is preserved as a national monument. Ludwig Prandtl

4221-412: Was moved to Auteuil, a suburb of Paris, where his wind tunnel with a two-metre test section is still operational today. Eiffel significantly improved the efficiency of the open-return wind tunnel by enclosing the test section in a chamber, designing a flared inlet with a honeycomb flow straightener and adding a diffuser between the test section and the fan located at the downstream end of the diffuser; this

4288-425: Was poured on 22 June 1942 on a site that eventually would become Calspan , where the wind tunnel still operates. By the end of World War II, the US had built eight new wind tunnels, including the largest one in the world at Moffett Field near Sunnyvale, California, which was designed to test full size aircraft at speeds of less than 250 mph (400 km/h) and a vertical wind tunnel at Wright Field, Ohio, where

4355-465: Was re-erected and is still operated there by the ONERA . With its 26 ft (8 m) test section and airspeed up to Mach 1, it is the largest transonic wind tunnel facility in the world. Frank Wattendorf reported on this wind tunnel for a US response. On 22 June 1942, Curtiss-Wright financed construction of one of the nation's largest subsonic wind tunnels in Buffalo, NY. The first concrete for building

4422-531: Was shown in 2009 during the presentation of logotype of Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics . In 2010, a vertical wind tunnel was shown at the Latvian exhibition of Expo 2010 in Shanghai, China. Outdoor vertical wind tunnels can either be portable or stationary. Portable vertical wind tunnels are often used in movies and demonstrations, and are often rented for large events such as conventions and state fairs. Portable units offer

4489-543: Was then placed at the proper location in the throat or nozzle for the desired airspeed. In the United States, concern over the lagging of American research facilities compared to those built by the Germans led to the Unitary Wind Tunnel Plan Act of 1949, which authorized expenditure to construct new wind tunnels at universities and at military sites. Some German war-time wind tunnels were dismantled for shipment to

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