As early as the 1930s, wind tunnels built and operated by NASA’s predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for on Aeronautics, or NACA, played a critical role in the design and improvement of aircraft.
Through the decades, NASA’s expanded suite of tunnels continued to host valuable foundational testing in such areas as stability and control, in-flight icing, stall avoidance, propulsion systems, airframe development, flutter avoidance and noise reduction.
Today the scale models of aircraft or aircraft components look much different, and many are advanced concepts for future aircraft. Wind tunnels continue to be a valuable proof-of-concept tool in addition to computer-aided simulations.
