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An aviation maintenance technician performs a routine
[NATO Airbase in France], Marshall plan, post-war reconstruction of Europe
A U.S. Marine Corps T-28 Trojan aircraft, pops smoke
Wayne County Airport, a United States Army Air Corps air ferry command base sixteen miles from Detroit, Michigan. Factory men inspecting the ship
Production. A-31 ("Vengeance") dive bombers. Motor tune-up. Flight service mechanics are shown here warming up the motor of a Vultee "Vengeance" dive bomber prior to the ship's take-off for a test flight at the Nashville Division of Vultee Aircraft Inc. The "Vengeance" (A-31) was originally designed for the French. It was later adopted by the RAF (Royal Air Force) and still later by the U.S. Army Air Forces. It is a single-engine, low-wing plane, carrying a crew of two men and having six machine guns of varying calibers
U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Henry Thomas, a fixed
Wayne County Airport, a United States Army Air Corps air ferry command base sixteen miles from Detroit, Michigan. Factory men inspecting the ship
Soldiers with Battery C, 1st Battalion, 194th Field
Pilot of VMSV-231 at Majuro Island, Capt. John F. Adams, USMC on the wing of his plane. - NARA - 520718
Related
Ramjet Testing in the NACA's Altitude Wind Tunnel
The NACA's First Wind Tunnel - NASA wind tunnel. Public domain image.
Altitude Wind Tunnel at the NACA’s Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory
Inlet Duct being lowered into the Altitude Wind Tunnel Test Section
Python Turboprop Prepared for a Test in the Altitude Wind Tunnel
Supersonic Wind Tunnel Test Section
New Wing Shape Tested in Wind Tunnel
The Multi-Axis Space Test Inertia Facility in the Altitude Wind Tunnel
CEMEL, test subject performing various test in tropical wind tunnel
First Test Program in the NACA’s Altitude Wind Tunnel
Summary
The Altitude Wind Tunnel (AWT) was the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory’s largest and most important test facility in the 1940s. The AWT employed massive cooling and exhaust systems to simulate conditions found at high altitudes. The facility was originally designed to test large piston engines in a simulated flight environment. The introduction of the turbojet during the tunnel’s construction, however, changed the facility’s focus before it became operational. Its first test program was a study of the Bell YP–59A Airacomet and its General Electric I–16 turbojets. The Airacomet was the United States’ first attempt to build a jet aircraft. 1600-horsepower centrifugal engines based on an early design by British engineer Frank Whittle were incorporated into an existing Bell airframe. In October 1942 the Airacomet was secretly test flown in the California desert. The aircraft’s performance was limited, however, and the NACA was asked to study the engines in the AWT. The wind tunnel’s 20-foot-diameter test section was large enough to accommodate entire aircraft with its wing tips and tail removed. The I-16 engines were studied exhaustively in early 1944. They first analyzed the engines in their original configuration and then implemented a boundary layer removal duct, a new nacelle inlet, and new cooling seals. Tests of the modified version showed that the improved distribution of airflow increased the I–16’s performance by 25 percent. The Airacomet never overcame some of its inherent design issues, but the AWT went on to study nearly every emerging US turbojet model during the next decade.