Wind tunnels
NASA AMES RESEARCH CENTER ARCHIVES
A key motivation for the new lab was the need for huge wind tunnels to jump-start America’s aeronautical research, which was far behind Germany’s. Smaller tunnels capable of speeds up to 300 miles per hour were built first, followed by a massive 40-by-80-foot tunnel for full-scale aircraft. Powered up in March 1941, these tunnels became vital after Pearl Harbor, helping scientists rapidly develop advanced aircraft.
Today, NASA Ames operates the world’s largest pressurized wind tunnel, with subsonic and transonic chambers for testing rockets, aircraft, and wind turbines.
Pioneer and Voyager 2
NASA AMES RESEARCH CENTER ARCHIVES
From 1965 to 1992, Ames managed the Pioneer missions, which explored the moon, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn. It also contributed to Voyager 2, launched in 1977, which journeyed past four planets before entering interstellar space in 2018. Ames’s archive preserves our first glimpses of strange new worlds seen during these pioneering missions.
Odd aircraft
NASA AMES RESEARCH CENTER ARCHIVES
The skeleton of a hulking airship hangar, obsolete even before its completion, remains on NASA Ames’s campus.
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