The National Transonic Facility (NTF), also known internally as facility 1236, is a high-pressure, cryogenic, closed-circuit wind tunnel at the

Langley Research Center The Langley Research Center (LaRC or NASA Langley), located in Hampton, Virginia, United States of America, is the oldest of NASA's field centers. It directly borders Langley Air Force Base and the Back River on the Chesapeake Bay. LaRC has fo ...

Hampton, Virginia Hampton () is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 137,148. It is the List ...

. It uses nitrogen gas, at high pressure, to cool the air which allows flight aerodynamics to be duplicated in small scale. The cross section of the tunnel is high and wide. Unlike full-scale wind tunnels, the NTF can adjust airflow to match any model size down to 1/50 scale. The facility can operate at temperatures ranging from -250°F to + 150°F. To achieve lower than ambient temperature, liquid nitrogen is sprayed into the tunnel through nozzles upwind of the fan used to accelerate the air. The facility has tested aircraft such as the Boeing 777,

Boeing 767 The Boeing 767 is an American wide-body aircraft developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The aircraft was launched as the 7X7 program on July 14, 1978, the prototype first flew on September 26, 1981, and it was certified on ...

, Space Shuttle as well as blended wing designs such as the

B-2 The Northrop (later Northrop Grumman) B-2 Spirit, also known as the Stealth Bomber, is an American heavy strategic bomber, featuring low-observable stealth technology designed to penetrate dense anti-aircraft defenses. A subsonic flying w ...

bomber, A-6 Intruder, F-18 Hornet.National Transonic Facility - NasaCRgis
/ref> File:NTF STS wind tunnel model.jpg, Space Shuttle model used in testing at the NTF File:NTF Nitrogen input.jpg, Instrumentation penetration File:2001 Boeing 777 Test NTF.jpg, Boeing 777 model under test

References

Langley Research Center Wind tunnels Buildings and structures in Hampton, Virginia {{Virginia-struct-stub