The 1 × 1 m hypersonic wind tunnel Kochel/Tullahoma 1940–1960

Abstract

Peenemunde and Cape Canaveral mark cornerstones of space history. Kochel in Southern Germany and Tullahoma in Tennessee, USA also belong in this category. The technically unique Kochel wind tunnel was part of the German long-distance missile development strategy, planned and prepared in secret before the beginning of World War II. A 57 MW closed-circuit wind tunnel facility with 1 × 1 m measuring section was planned for continuous-flow simulation at high Mach numbers Ma 7–10. In the early 1940 s a site beside the Walchensee Power Station at Kochel am See in Upper Bavaria, Germany was chosen to provide the required altitude difference of 200 m for the hydraulic turbine drives. The preparatory activities for the erection of this impressive hypersonic wind tunnel facility were pushed ahead until an enforced temporary pause in September 1944. In early May 1945 US troops occupied the area and, in due course, scientists of General Arnold’s Scientific Advisory Group, the ‘von Karman team’, ordered the transfer to the USA of available equipment, design materials and other paperwork. Here, at the Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) Tullahoma, TN this ‘Tunnel A’ was built to begin operation around 1957. The testing was conducted on the Mach 7 experimental aircraft X-15, space shuttle developments and still secret investigations on unmanned hypersonic vehicles.