Status of AEDC Transonic, Supersonic, and Hypersonic Wind Tunnel Improvement Programs

Abstract

The United States Air Force maintains key wind tunnel test capabilities required for DoD flight vehicle development at the Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) in Tennessee. Primary Test and Evaluation (TE the VKF houses supersonic Tunnel A and hypersonic Tunnels B and C (Tunnels A/B/C). These tunnels fulfill the DoD requirement for high productivity testing of mid-size and large models of aircraft, space vehicles, missiles, and armaments in the subsonic through hypersonic flight regimes. Over the last 50 years, these AEDC tunnels have provided a significant percentage of the aerodynamic data vital to the success of many major flight-vehicle development programs. Bombers, tactical fighters, missile systems, and space launch/return vehicles have relied on the array of test capabilities and services provided, some of which are unique in the nation. As these facilities have aged, it has become necessary to replace wind tunnel hardware and systems in order to continue to meet the DoD mission. Replacing original (unique legacy) equipment with modern systems (including newer electronic control and data systems) will provide increased performance, maintainability, and reliability, while reducing costs. AEDC has a plan for identifying and accomplishing these objectives through focused strategic investments, and the results of this plan are the subject of this paper. Providing state-of-theart facilities to meet the increased technical demands of future programs requires substantial resource commitments beyond those considerable costs necessary simply to maintain the infrastructure. As part of this plan, AEDC is executing major upgrades to the transonic (4T), supersonic (Tunnel A), and hypersonic (Tunnels B and C) midsize wind tunnels, including supporting infrastructure. AEDC also has plans for future improvements to the large transonic Tunnel 16T.