OVERVIEW

The Aerodynamics Laboratory at NIAR consists of the Walter H. Beech Memorial Wind Tunnel, a flow visualization water tunnel, a three- by four-foot low-speed wind tunnel and two supersonic wind tunnels.

The Walter H. Beech Memorial Wind Tunnel is a premier low-speed, closed-return wind tunnel with a test section that is seven feet high, 10 feet wide and 12 feet long, the size most desired by the aviation industry. The tunnel is capable of testing the aerodynamic drag characteristics and durability of various objects including aircraft and automobile models, motorcycles, bicycles and bicyclists, ski positions and various other items. The tunnel is capable of reaching speeds of more than 200 mph. The tunnel itself seems gargantuan at 150 feet long and 50 feet wide.

The Beech Wind Tunnel has a rich history, dating back to the days when Wichita State University was still the University of Wichita and the local aviation industry was booming with entrepreneurial minds. The tunnel is the result of a demand from the Wichita aviation industry in the 1940s. A mere 32 years after the Wright brothers created the first wind tunnel in the United States, and 75 years after the creation of the first wind tunnel in England, Wichita’s own planemakers, Walter H. Beech and Dwane L. Wallace, prompted President William Jardine at the University of Wichita to build their own low-speed wind tunnel. The tunnel was completed in the summer of 1948.

Since then it was undergone several upgrades including a $6 million renovation completed in 2005. The renovation included the installation of new flow conditioning equipment including a stainless-steel honeycomb flow straightener and anti-turbulence screen and the removal of the old 1,000 horsepower fan and motor unit and the installation of a new 2,500 horsepower electric variable frequency drive unit in the back leg of the tunnel. Other improvements include the addition of a new heat exchange system that limits temperature rise in the tunnel at maximum operating velocities, a completely rebuilt steel, aluminum and glass test section, and the addition of a new external balance with the highest measurement resolution available in the world today for this application. In addition, new data acquisition, control and reduction computer systems and programs were added.