8-Foot High Speed Tunnel. NASA public domain image colelction.

Control panel below the test section of the 8-Foot High Speed Tunnel (8-Foot HST). Authorized July 17, 1933, construction of the 8-Foot HST was paid for with funds from the Federal Public Works Administration. Manly Hood and Russell Robinson designed the unusual facility which could produce a 500 mph wind stream across an 8-Foot test section. The concrete shell was not part of the original design. Like most projects funded through New Deal programs, the PWA restricted the amount of money which could be spent on materials. The majority of funds were supposed to be expended on labor. Though originally, Hood and Robinson had planned a welded steel pressure vessel around the test section, PWA officials proposed the idea of concrete. This picture shows the test section inside the igloo-like structure with walls of 1-foot thick reinforced concrete. The thick walls were needed "because of the Bernoulli effect, [which meant that] the text chamber had to withstand powerful, inwardly directed pressure. Operating personnel located inside the igloo were subjected to pressures equivalent to 10,000-foot altitude and had to wear oxygen masks and enter through airlocks. A heat exchanger removed the large quantities of heat generated by the big fan.

NASA Identifier: L11851