THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 28, 1995 TAG: 9510280313
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JAMES SCHULTZ, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Medium: 97 lines
They came Friday morning for the final group photo.
They sat on aluminum bleachers: engineers, scientists, technicians, and secretaries, dressed up and smiling at the camera one last time. Towering above them was the cavernous NASA Langley Research Center wind tunnel that would be formally closed in mere hours.
But will it? Although all research has ceased in the 30-by-60-foot wind tunnel, and employees are being transferred to other quarters, a proposal just put forth by Old Dominion University might prevent the mothballing of a facility that many think helped the United States win World War II.
At the moment, details are sketchy and plans are not final. But if ODU succeeds, trucks, cars, even boats could join the parade of airplanes and the occasional spacecraft that have been tested and improved in a facility that has been operating almost continuously for 65 years.
``We would love to assist ODU if they in fact have a business base to support activity in the tunnel,'' said Langley director Paul F. Holloway. ``But there are lots of legal complications. How to privatize is yet to be determined.''
Langley officials say the closure is an attempt to reduce operational costs and hew to budget reductions mandated by the U.S. Congress and NASA headquarters. According to Holloway, the joint resolution under which all government agencies are now operating - at present, no federal budget has been enacted - has reduced Langley's 1996 fiscal expenditure to $650 million, or roughly 7 percent lower than the 1995 figure of $700 million.
More tunnel shutdowns are on the way.
The next, Langley's 8-Foot Transonic Pressure Tunnel, is slated for late December. By the end of 1997, another tunnel will be closed, Holloway said.
Altogether, some 14 Langley wind tunnels, large and small, are on a preliminary close-down list.
``I see this as the beginning of the end for NASA,'' said Langley engineering technician Bob Berry, who has worked at the Hampton complex for 30 years. ``It (the 30-by-60) is still a useful place. Frankly, in 10 years, at the rate we're going, I'd be surprised if there is a NASA.''
The 30-by-60 tunnel, built in 1930, sits on land overlooking the Back River, land that is now part of Langley Air Force Base. NASA owns the building. In 1985, the facility was designated a National Historic Landmark.
So any privatization discussion involving ODU or anyone else would have to include at least three federal agencies - NASA, the Department of Defense and the National Park Service - plus any potential private-sector users.
A ceremony to make the shutdown official was scheduled for late Friday afternoon.
Roughly a quarter of the 30-by-60's workload will be transferred to another Langley tunnel, the 14-by-22, and a third work shift will be added there. The remaining 75 percent of the work will take place at NASA Ames Research Center in California.
Employees or contractors will be reassigned, and none will be let go.
``I don't see this as the beginning of the end at all,'' Holloway said. ``There's nothing that can be done here that can't be done elsewhere. For decades, that wasn't true. We can't continue to operate everything because the money just isn't there.''
The entire complex, named the Full-Scale Tunnel at the time of its birth in 1930, was massive for its day: 434 feet long and 222 feet wide, with a maximum height of 97 feet. Until 1945, it was the largest such structure of its kind in the world.
During World War II, the tunnel became famous for its groundbreaking work on aerodynamic streamlining. Langley researchers painstakingly poured over the surfaces of nearly every model or prototype U.S. fighter to find ways to decrease drag, improve speed and reduce fuel consumption.
The research succeeded, sometimes spectacularly. In the case of the P-39 Bell Airacobra, a redesign based on Langley's work led to a dramatic 52 mph increase in speed.
``The bottom line was that this tunnel contributed directly to U.S. victories in Europe and the Pacific,'' said Joseph R. Chambers, a 31-year Langley veteran and former supervising engineer for the 30-by-60. ``The work was direct and relevant to what the nation needed. This was where the rubber hit the road.''
After the war, other tests of civilian and military aircraft followed. Eventually, models of the Mercury spacecraft were evaluated in the 30-by-60, as were supersonic transports, vertical takeoff-and-landing craft, and advanced, modern-day jet fighters, including the F-22.
``It's the end of an era,'' said aerospace engineer Sue Grafton, who has worked at the facility for 34 years and at Langley for 37. ``But I'm not going to sit around and be unhappy. We're going to find a place to set up and continue our research. We have to move on.''
Plans continue to transfer equipment and personnel to other Langley facilities, a process officials say will take six months. Unless some other agency or institution like Old Dominion intervenes, the 30-By-60-foot tunnel will sit silent, the only reminder of its historic past a small marker noticed perhaps by sharp-eyed joggers and other passers-by. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN, The Virginian-Pilot
``It's the end of an era,'' said aerospace engineer Sue Grafton, who
has worked at the NASA Langley Research Center's 30-by-60-foot wind
tunnel for 34 years.
by CNB