When work on the world's first full-scale wind tunnel got underway at Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory in January 1930, some people saw the giant, $1 million project as just another case of wasteful government spending.
But pilot after pilot from World War II would owe their lives to the massive aerodynamics testing tool, which scientists and engineers used to tweak and perfect virtually every high-performance aircraft used by the United States during the conflict, including the famously fast and maneuverable P-51 Mustang as well as the legendary F4U Corsair.
Designed by a team led by former World War I aviator Smith J. De France, the pioneering tunnel had a 30-by-60-foot open throat capable of testing aircraft with wing spans of up to 40 feet, a NASA history reported.
Two fans powered by 4,000-horsepower electric motors moved air through the tunnel at speeds of up to 118 miles per hour.
When it was completed in 1931, the landmark facility was 434 feet long, 222 feet wide and some 10 stories high.
It was then the only wind tunnel in the world large enough to test the actual planes rather than scale models, and -- for much of WWII -- it operated around the clock. Charles Lindbergh and Howard Hughes were among the aviation pioneers who came to walk its halls, the Daily Press reported.
What resulted from its critical tests were significant increases in aircraft speed, range and maneuverability that made many American planes superior to their foes -- and which ultimately helped turn the tide of the air war in favor of the United States and its allies.
Even before the war, researchers at the cavernous wind tunnel pioneered a method to measure drag and make recommendations about correcting design problems. So successful were the results of this "drag cleanup" process that the military had Langley test virtually every new prototype.
Among the aircraft that saw the most significant improvements from such scrutiny was the Bell P-39 Airacobra fighter plane, whose top speed rose from 340 to 392 mph as a result of the tests conducted at Langley.
Still more prominent was the center's work on the pioneering low-drag wings of the P-51, which gave the milestone plane such a long range and high-cruising speed that it could not only provide a highly effective escort for long-range bombers but also outclass virtually every prop-driven enemy fighter in aerial combat.
Other notable tests included a top-secret effort to determine the flight capabilities of a captured Japanese Zero.
That kind of research at Langley and two other new labs opened by the National Advisory Council for Aeronautics during the war was the "force behind our Air Supremacy," Aviation magazine editorialized in January 1944.
"The story of the NACA [was] the story of American aviation. Neither could well exist without the other."
After the war, the tunnel played a critical role in the development of many pioneering aircraft and space vehicles, including the Harrier Jump Jet fighter, the F-16, the Boeing 2707 supersonic transport, the Space Shuttle and the Lunar Landing Test Vehicle.
It was still in use by Old Dominion University researchers through the early 2000s after being decommissioned by NASA in 1995 and then leased to the school through a privatization program, the Daily Press reported.
Despite being declared a National Historic Landmark in 1985, the tunnel was demolished in 2010 after the ODU lease expired.
Many of its most distinguished features, including the powerful propellers that drove its massive air stream, were preserved before the structure was dismantled.
-- Mark St. John Erickson