History
In 1946 the site at Thurleigh was the new base for the second Royal Aircraft Establishment site. The site had several reasonably large wind tunnels, one supersonic and one large subsonic. The supersonic tunnel was dismantled by 2005.
RAE was deeply involved in the development of Concorde and was also a centre for the development of the Instrument Landing System.
The wind tunnel provision consisted essentially of four large high-quality research facilities, which would allow the testing of aircraft configurations and components at speeds from around eighty miles per hour up to a Mach number of 5, or five times the speed of sound. These was (in order of completion) the 3x3 supersonic tunnel, the 13x9 low speed tunnel, the 8x8 supersonic tunnel, and the 3x4 high supersonic speed tunnel (HSST). The numerals identify the working section dimensions in feet, width by height. The 8x8 and the 3x4 were the largest tunnels in their Mach number range in Western Europe. A low speed tunnel was also provided specifically to study the spinning characteristics of aircraft, which was a little understood phenomenon at the time.
The Explore
Visited with @Porker of the night and @obscurity . Was an eventful day to say the least, the morning anyway! We headed to this site in the afternoon for a mooch around. Cracking place and very photogenic. Thought we would turn the lights on as well, would have been rude not to
After a few hours we hopped in the car and waved mr secca goodbye on the way past
On to the pictures,
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Cheers for having a ganders
In 1946 the site at Thurleigh was the new base for the second Royal Aircraft Establishment site. The site had several reasonably large wind tunnels, one supersonic and one large subsonic. The supersonic tunnel was dismantled by 2005.
RAE was deeply involved in the development of Concorde and was also a centre for the development of the Instrument Landing System.
The wind tunnel provision consisted essentially of four large high-quality research facilities, which would allow the testing of aircraft configurations and components at speeds from around eighty miles per hour up to a Mach number of 5, or five times the speed of sound. These was (in order of completion) the 3x3 supersonic tunnel, the 13x9 low speed tunnel, the 8x8 supersonic tunnel, and the 3x4 high supersonic speed tunnel (HSST). The numerals identify the working section dimensions in feet, width by height. The 8x8 and the 3x4 were the largest tunnels in their Mach number range in Western Europe. A low speed tunnel was also provided specifically to study the spinning characteristics of aircraft, which was a little understood phenomenon at the time.
The Explore
Visited with @Porker of the night and @obscurity . Was an eventful day to say the least, the morning anyway! We headed to this site in the afternoon for a mooch around. Cracking place and very photogenic. Thought we would turn the lights on as well, would have been rude not to
After a few hours we hopped in the car and waved mr secca goodbye on the way past On to the pictures,
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
Cheers for having a ganders
