Wind Tunnel to Close? UPDATE 3 – Correction – NOT the one NASCAR uses: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has announced plans to close the full-scale wind tunnel at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., by Sept. 30, 2004. Over the years, the facility has been used by many NASCAR teams, which in 1999 were reported to be paying $1,400 an hour to test in the tunnel. One report said that as many as two or three teams used the wind tunnel each month, with bills exceeding $40,000 for multiple-car tests.(Winston Cup Scene daily newsletter)(4-23-2002) UPDATE: As part of a national initiative to optimize government-owned wind tunnels, NASA’s Langley Research Center will shut down its 16-Foot Transonic Tunnel and transition work to other facilities. The tunnel is scheduled to be put in mothball status September 30, 2004. “Mothball” status means that the facility could be made operational within six to 12 months and that maintenance to the tunnel would be limited to facility preservation only. Research tests are booked at the tunnel through September 2003 and all those tests will be completed. The Center anticipates that no civil service jobs will be lost as the tunnel’s staff of 18 researchers and technicians will be reassigned to other facilities. Doesn’t mention NASCAR use in the story.(NASA)(4-24-2002) AND more from the Daily Press(in part): NASA Langley will lose about half the research conducted at one of its oldest and busiest wind tunnels because of a planned shutdown in two years. And future wind-tunnel shutdowns cannot be ruled out. The aeronautics center announced that it was stopping all but maintenance operations at the 16-foot Transonic Wind Tunnel, which has conducted research on everything from jet fighters to wheelchairs. Many people think that the closing, part of a nationwide look at such centers, should have little effect in the community. NASA Langley hopes to shuffle work to its National Transonic Facility, but some research will be lost to other agencies. The primary users at NASA Langley are split mostly between the military and the space agency itself. Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman are the top three industry users. Representatives with those businesses couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday on how the wind tunnel’s shutdown might affect their future use of the center. Two centers would be likely recipients of the work that NASA Langley could no longer perform: the Air Force’s Arnold Engineering Development Center in Tennessee and NASA’s Ames Research Center in California.(no mention of NASCAR in this article)(4-24-2002) UPDATE 2: been told by many sources that the wind tunnel that NASA is closing in the 16 ft. transonic tunnel. This is not the NASA tunnel that Old Dominion owns/operates and conducts tests for NASCAR teams. For more info on the tunnel, see their site at www.lfst.com. So not sure why this was made such an issue by WCS.(4-25-2002) UPDATE 3 – Correction: The Langley Research Center wind tunnel that NASA has announced plans to close is not the facility used for testing by NASCAR teams, as reported in Tuesday’s Scene Daily. The facility used by the NASCAR teams, the Langley Full-Scale Wind Tunnel operated by Old Dominion University, will remain open.(Winston Cup Scene daily newsletter)(4-26-2002)
