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Wind Tunnel and Propulsion Test Facilities
Supporting Analyses to an Assessment of NASA’s Capabilities to Serve National Needs
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) establishment and use of wind tunnel and propulsion test facilities have helped the United States build and maintain aerospace competitive advantage across the military, commercial, and space sectors. Are these major facilities continuing to serve the current and future needs of the nation at large? At the request of Congress and NASA, the RAND Corporation performed a yearlong study of the 31 such facilities at three NASA centers. The study examined current and future national needs for wind tunnel and propulsion test facilities, the technical competitiveness of NASA’s facilities, functional overlap and redundancy among NASA facilities, and management issues. Through its findings, the RAND team provided many recommendations for NASA regarding the future of 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.
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Pages: 162
ISBN/EAN: 0-8330-3642-4
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Contents
Chapter One:
Introduction
Chapter Two:
National Wind Tunnel and Propulsion Test Facility Needs and NASA’s Primary Facilities Serving These Needs
Chapter Three:
Subsonic Wind Tunnels
Chapter Four:
Transonic Wind Tunnels
Chapter Five:
Supersonic Wind Tunnels
Chapter Six:
Hypersonic Wind Tunnels
Chapter Seven:
Hypersonic Propulsion Integration Test Facilities
Chapter Eight:
Direct-Connect Propulsion Test Facilities
Appendix:
- Glossary
- U.S. Test Facilities
- Foreign Test Facilities
- Questionnaires
- Construction Times and Costs for Major Test Facilities
The research described in this report was prepared for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD). The research was conducted in the RAND National Defense Research Institute, a federally funded research and development center supported by the OSD, the Joint Staff, the unified commands, and the defense agencies.
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