The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) wind tunnel and propulsion test facilities continue to be important to U.S. competitiveness across the military, commercial, and space sectors. Unfortunately, management issues are creating real risks to these facilities. This technical report supports a companion monograph (Wind Tunnel and Propulsion Test Facilities: An Assessment of NASA's Capabilities to Serve National Needs, MG-178-NASA/OSD), providing more detailed data, observations, and conclusions about the future of NASA's wind tunnel and propulsion test facilities.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) wind tunnel and propulsion test facilities continue to be important to U.S. competitiveness across the military, commercial, and space sectors. Unfortunately, management issues are creating real risks to these facilities. NASA needs to develop an aeronautics test technology vision and plan; analyze the viability of a national test facility plan; identify and maintain its minimum set of facilities; and identify financial shared support to keep its underutilized but essential facilities from entering financial collapse.

This monograph reveals and discusses the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) wind tunnel and propulsion test facility management issues that are creating real risks to the United States' competitive aeronautics advantage.

A brand-new edition of the classic guide on low-speed wind tunnel testing While great advances in theoretical and computational methods have been made in recent years, low-speed wind tunnel testing remains essential for obtaining the full range of data needed to guide detailed design decisions for many practical engineering problems. This long-awaited Third Edition of William H. Rae, Jr.'s landmark reference brings together essential information on all aspects of low-speed wind tunnel design, analysis, testing, and instrumentation in one easy-to-use resource. Written by authors who are among the most respected wind tunnel engineers in the world, this edition has been updated to address current topics and applications, and includes coverage of digital electronics, new instrumentation, video and photographic methods, pressure-sensitive paint, and liquid crystal-based measurement methods. The book is organized for quick access to topics of interest, and examines basic test techniques and objectives of modeling and testing aircraft designs in low-speed wind tunnels, as well as applications to fluid motion analysis, automobiles, marine vessels, buildings, bridges, and other structures subject to wind loading. Supplemented with real-world examples throughout, Low-Speed Wind Tunnel Testing, Third Edition is an indispensable resource for aerospace engineering students and professionals, engineers and researchers in the automotive industries, wind tunnel designers, architects, and others who need to get the most from low-speed wind tunnel technology and experiments in their work.

Wind Tunnel Test Techniques: Design and Use at Low and High Speeds with Statistical Engineering Applications provides an up-to-date treatment of the topic. Beginning with a brief history of wind tunnels and its types and uses, the book goes on to cover subsonic, supersonic and hypersonic wind tunnel design and construction, calibration, boundary corrections, flow quality assessment, pressure surveys, and dynamic testing. It also focuses on wind tunnel facilities, making it useful for both the designer and operator. Engineers and graduate students in aerospace, automotive and similar programs will find this book useful in their work with experimental aerodynamics, gas dynamics, facility design and performance. - Deals with a broad range of flow speeds in wind tunnels, from low speed to high speed - Provides a discussion of similarity laws as well as material on statistical analysis - Includes coverage on facility-to-facility and facility-to-CFD correlation - Presents advanced topics such as cryogenic wind tunnels, ground simulation in automotive testing, and propulsion testing