The ''Deutsche Luftfahrtforschungsanstalt'' (English: German Aeronautical Research Institute, LFA, also known as the ''

Hermann Göring Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German politician, military leader and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which ruled Germany from 1933 to 1 ...

Research Institute'') was a secret

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

facility for

airframe The mechanical structure of an aircraft is known as the airframe. This structure is typically considered to include the fuselage, undercarriage, empennage and wings, and excludes the propulsion system. Airframe design is a field of aerospa ...

, aeroengine, and aircraft weapons testing during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. It was Germany's "most advanced and extensive viationresearch establishment, outside of the existing ''Erprobungsstelle'' network of military aviation evaluation facilities, themselves headquartered at Rechlin. Located near

Völkenrode Völkenrode is a quarter (''Stadtteil'') of Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, Germany. Formerly a municipality in its own right and part of the district of Braunschweig, it was incorporated into the city of Braunschweig in 1974. Today, it is part of t ...

, on the western outskirts of

Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the ...

(Brunswick), near what became the

Inner German Border The inner German border (german: Innerdeutsche Grenze or ; initially also ) was the border between the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, West Germany) from 1949 to 1990. Not including the ...

. it was a site begun in October 1935. The first wind tunnel was begun in November 1936. Most of the sixty buildings, scattered around the site, did not exceed treetop height, and all were well-

camouflage Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the b ...

d, to reduce the chance of them being detected by

aerial reconnaissance Aerial reconnaissance is reconnaissance for a military or strategic purpose that is conducted using reconnaissance aircraft. The role of reconnaissance can fulfil a variety of requirements including artillery spotting, the collection of im ...

and to avoid making them targets, as the wind tunnels of the '' Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt'' (''DVL'') in

Adlershof Adlershof (, literally "Eagle's Court") is a locality (') in the borough (') Treptow-Köpenick of Berlin, Germany. Adlershof is home to the new City of Science, Technology and Media ( WISTA), located on the southwestern edge of the locality. ...

(near

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

) or the ''Aerodynamische Versuchsanstalt'' (''AVA'', part of today's DLR agency) at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

were. The buildings were in five groups. The Institute of Aerodynamics had five

wind tunnel Wind tunnels are large tubes with air blowing through them which are used to replicate the interaction between air and an object flying through the air or moving along the ground. Researchers use wind tunnels to learn more about how an aircraft ...

s, while the Institute of Gas Dynamics had its own high-speed tunnel; both were at the southern end of the campus. The static testing station of the Institute of Strength Properties was to the west; the Institute of Engine Research, the east. Weapons research was done by the Institute of Kinematics in a -long tunnel in the northwest corner. These were accompanied by administration buildings, a

canteen {{Primary sources, date=February 2007 Canteen is an Australian national support organisation for young people (aged 12–25) living with cancer; including cancer patients, their brothers and sisters, and young people with parents or primary carers ...

, a

telephone exchange telephone exchange, telephone switch, or central office is a telecommunications system used in the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or in large enterprises. It interconnects telephone subscriber lines or virtual circuits of digital syste ...

, guard houses, generators, and other facilities. To help reduce the risk of detection, there were no

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a p ...

lines in, nor overhead power lines, nor any chimneys; and uniquely for an aviation research facility of its time in Germany, no runways, taxiways or hardstands for active aviation operations; just about all of the facilitiy's infrastructure needs were supplied underground from Braunschweig, including

steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporizatio ...

heat In thermodynamics, heat is defined as the form of energy crossing the boundary of a thermodynamic system by virtue of a temperature difference across the boundary. A thermodynamic system does not ''contain'' heat. Nevertheless, the term is ...

. In addition, there were four hundred houses in Völkenrode for the 1,500 or so workers and scientists. Each of the wind tunnels at ''LFA'' was given an "A" number. A1 had a circular nozzle in diameter, producing a maximum speed of ; it entered service in 1937, the year after construction began on facilities. A2 measured long and had a test section in diameter (coated with Keratylene to keep the flow smooth), capable of generating test speeds (depending on the model's scale) of between Mach 1 and 1.2. It was driven by a pair of DC motors, and fitted with

interferometer Interferometry is a technique which uses the '' interference'' of superimposed waves to extract information. Interferometry typically uses electromagnetic waves and is an important investigative technique in the fields of astronomy, fiber o ...

and striation gear for study of flow patterns. Begun in 1937, it first ran in 1939. It did, however, suffer with problems of vibration, leading the research teams to rely on a Rheinmetall-Börsig F25 free-flight research rocket with models mounted in the nose. The A3 tunnel, largest at the ''LFA'' site, had an test section with a maximum speed of and a working length of , enough to accommodate a

Messerschmitt Bf 109 The Messerschmitt Bf 109 is a German World War II fighter aircraft that was, along with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, the backbone of the Luftwaffe's fighter force. The Bf 109 first saw operational service in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War an ...

's fuselage. It was powered by a pair of . The A9 building housed a pair of supersonic wind tunnels, each driven by a motor, with a maximum speed of Mach 1.5, but a test section diameter of only . Along with direct aerodynamic research, ''LFA'' did testing on materials (though not, apparently, of parts) and on aircraft engines. The engine work included testing of

turbine A turbine ( or ) (from the Greek , ''tyrbē'', or Latin ''turbo'', meaning vortex) is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work. The work produced by a turbine can be used for generating ...

and turbine blade shapes,

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain, ...

turbine blades, cooling of turbine blades (including liquid cooling), bearings,

detonation Detonation () is a type of combustion involving a supersonic exothermic front accelerating through a medium that eventually drives a shock front propagating directly in front of it. Detonations propagate supersonically through shock waves with s ...

, and several types of

heat exchanger A heat exchanger is a system used to transfer heat between a source and a working fluid. Heat exchangers are used in both cooling and heating processes. The fluids may be separated by a solid wall to prevent mixing or they may be in direct conta ...

s, among other things. The test centre assisted the BMW firm in developing the factory-produced forward

cowling A cowling is the removable covering of a vehicle's engine, most often found on automobiles, motorcycles, airplanes, and on outboard boat motors. On airplanes, cowlings are used to reduce drag and to cool the engine. On boats, cowlings are a cove ...

— which had the engine's

oil cooler Oil cooling is the use of engine oil as a coolant, typically to remove surplus heat from an internal combustion engine. The hot engine transfers heat to the oil which then usually passes through a heat-exchanger, typically a type of radiator kno ...

integrated into it from the beginning — for the Bavarian firm's

BMW 801 The BMW 801 was a powerful German air-cooled 14-cylinder- radial aircraft engine built by BMW and used in a number of German Luftwaffe aircraft of World War II. Production versions of the twin-row engine generated between 1,560 and 2,000 P ...

fourteen-cylinder radial engine used in many German Luftwaffe military aircraft, most importantly the

Fw 190 The Focke-Wulf Fw 190, nicknamed ''Würger'' ("Shrike") is a German single-seat, single-engine fighter aircraft designed by Kurt Tank at Focke-Wulf in the late 1930s and widely used during World War II. Along with its well-known counterpart, t ...

A; trials indicated it was possible to reduce drag enough to save , as well as to maximize pressure build-up to assist cooling. It also helped in development of the pioneering

Argus As 014 The Argus As 014 (designated 109-014 by the RLM) was a pulsejet engine used on the German V-1 flying bomb of World War II, and the first model of pulsejet engine placed in mass production. License manufacture of the As 014 was carried out in J ...

pulsejet used in the V-1. In collaboration with

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The ori ...

and ''DVL'' (Berlin-

), it also contributed to the development of the

swept wing A swept wing is a wing that angles either backward or occasionally forward from its root rather than in a straight sideways direction. Swept wings have been flown since the pioneer days of aviation. Wing sweep at high speeds was first investiga ...

(what Germans called ''Pfeilflüge'', or "arrow wing"). Among the engine projects worked on at ''LFA'' was a toroidal (swing-piston) design by

Otto Lutz Otto is a masculine German given name and a surname. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants ''Audo'', ''Odo'', ''Udo'') of Germanic names beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity". The name is recorded fro ...

of Büssing, a concept akin to the Wankel; work was also done by

Junkers Junkers Flugzeug- und Motorenwerke AG (JFM, earlier JCO or JKO in World War I, English: Junkers Aircraft and Motor Works) more commonly Junkers , was a major German aircraft and aircraft engine manufacturer. It was founded there in Dessau, Ge ...

and Bosch. ''LFA'' remained so secret, the Allied air forces never bombed it. Postwar, the site was visited by a

Ministry of Aircraft Production Ministry may refer to: Government * Ministry (collective executive), the complete body of government ministers under the leadership of a prime minister * Ministry (government department), a department of a government Religion * Christian ...

team led by

Roy Fedden Sir Alfred Hubert Roy Fedden MBE, FRAeS (6 June 1885 – 21 November 1973) was an engineer who designed most of Bristol Engine Company's successful piston aircraft engine designs. Early life Fedden was born in the Bristol area to fairly wealt ...

.Christopher, ''passim''.

Notes

Sources

*Christopher, John. ''The Race for Hitler's X-Planes''. The Mill, Gloucestershire: History Press, 2013.

External links

German language page on the LFA facility's history and still-standing buildings

{{authority control Research institutes in Germany Aviation in Germany Aviation research institutes Aeronautics organizations Organisations based in Braunschweig 1935 establishments in Germany Organizations established in 1935 Research and development in Nazi Germany Aerospace research institutes