AEDC Wind Tunnel upgrade improves flexible nozzle accuracy and reliability

ATA Mission Support Department construction manager Dusty Kirkham conducts calibration tests on the new roll mechanism that will be used at AEDC in the Propulsion Wind Tunnel’s four foot transonic wind tunnel, 4T. The roll mechanism which supports the sting, or test support arm, and the test article provides the ability to roll the test item during a test and handle higher loads of a test requirement. (Photo by Rick Goodfriend)

AEDC Wind Tunnel upgrade improves flexible nozzle accuracy and reliability

Keith Gipson (right) and Dennis O’Dear (behind the actuators), both ATA outside machinists, install newly designed and fabricated nozzle actuators in the Propulsion Wind Tunnel’s four foot transonic wind tunnel, 4T at AEDC. The actuators are electromechanically driven ball-screw jacks which move the flexible top and bottom plates in the 4T tunnel closer together providing variable Mach numbers or wind speeds. (Photo by Rick Goodfriend)

AEDC researches possible modifications to C-5M Super Galaxy wings

Jim Crawford, an outside machinist with the Aerospace Testing Alliance (ATA) Flight Systems Operation and Maintenance branch, inspects a winglet on the wingtip of the C-5M Super Galaxy model during a break in testing in Arnold Engineering Development Complex’s (AEDC) 16-foot Transonic Wind Tunnel (16T). The model is a pink color as a result of AEDC’s application of Pressure Sensitive Paint (PSP) to it before the test was conducted. (Photo by Rick Goodfriend)

AEDC researches possible modifications to C-5M Super Galaxy wings

Pictured here is the C-5M Super Galaxy model during a break in testing in Arnold Engineering Development Complex’s (AEDC) 16-foot Transonic Wind Tunnel (16T). The model’s coloring is a result of the purple LEDs used to illuminate the Pressure Sensitive Paint (PSP). (Photo by Rick Goodfriend)

NFAC Team conducts 'game-changing technology test for NASA

This is an artist's concept of NASA's Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) showing the atmospheric entry of a spacecraft. (NASA Artwork)

AEDC-managed NFAC recently site of unique future generation aircraft test

A 1:11 scale model of a futuristic airplane is tested in the world's second-largest wind tunnel at the NFAC at Moffett Field, Calif. The plane would hold 150 passengers and is being called the next 737. Located at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, the NFAC is managed and operated by the U.S. Air Force’s Arnold Engineering Development Center. (Photo by Mike Anderson)

AEDC-managed NFAC recently site of unique future generation aircraft test

Back in one of two control rooms at the National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex (NFAC), Austin Paige, an electrician at the facility, operates equipment while AMELIA (Advanced Model for Extreme Lift and Improved Aeroacoustics) gets blasted with air inside the wind tunnel. (Photos by Mike Anderson, courtesy of NBC Bay Area News)

AEDC machinists create B-52 in Model Shop

Machinist Derrick Burton hand-works or “blends” around the pod where an engine will be attached to the B-52 model. (Photo by Philip Lorenz)

AEDC sets record with largest aircraft model to conduct B-52H store separation test

From left, J. T. Thompson, ATA captive trajectory system project engineer, discusses the B-52H model with Gary Cunningham, ATA lead outside machinist, in AEDC’s 16T between store separation test runs. (Photo by Rick Goodfriend)

AEDC sets record with largest aircraft model to conduct B-52H store separation test

Paul Haas, B-52 Program Office, Tinker AFB, Druana Sanders, Booz-Allen & Hamilton, Inc, and Don Arrowood, B-52 Program Office, Tinker AFB, examine the B-52H model’s stores in AEDC’s 16T between store separation test runs. (Photo by Rick Goodfriend)

B-52 model brought to life by machine programmers

Joel Gregory, an ATA numerical control programmer in AEDC’s Model Shop, explains how he programs more than a dozen different machines to cut chunks of metal into parts that made up the B-52 model used in store separation testing at AEDC. (Photo by Philip Lorenz III)

AEDC’s NFAC tests Speed Agile demonstrator

Caption for 110715-F-UU070-014: From left, AFMC commander Gen. Donald Hoffman and AEDC’s National Full-scale Aerodynamic Complex (NFAC) Test Director Patrick Goulding II get a close look at a 23-percent scale model of the Speed Agile technology demonstrator that recently underwent aerodynamic testing in the world’s largest wind tunnel at NFAC in Mountain View, Calif. (Photo provided)