THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Thursday, August 22, 1996             TAG: 9608220414
SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY MYLENE MANGALINDAN, STAFF WRITER 
                                            LENGTH:   43 lines

ODU HOPES FIRMS GET WIND OF ITS TUNNEL RESEARCH UNIVERSITY WANTS TO BE ACKNOWLEDGED NATIONALLY FOR ITS AEROSPACE EXPERTISE.

In its bid to bolster its reputation as a national research university, Old Dominion University will operate the largest wind tunnel at NASA's Langley Research Center.

``Old Dominion wants to be acknowledged as one of the national aerospace research universities, and this is one of those things that will add appreciably to that reputation,'' said Bob Ash, associate vice president for research, economic development and graduate studies at Old Dominion.

To enhance its research capabilities, university officials hope to contract with companies to use the 65-year-old wind tunnel for testing items like automobiles, trucks or stadium light towers. They say it will be a valuable tool for students and professors that could have a big economic payoff as well.

``It allows us to attract new customers to the area that don't do these things,'' Ash said.

Under an interim agreement, the university has started to conduct research inside NASA's 30- by 60-foot wind tunnel, which refers to the height and the width of the facility's test section where aerospace models are actually placed. Old Dominion is preparing to test an F-15 model nose cone for the Air Force and McDonnell Douglas.

The final agreement between NASA and Old Dominion will work like a lease, except money will not change hands between the two. Instead, Old Dominion will charge companies $1,250 per hour to use the wind tunnel for product testing, Ash said. That's less than the approximate $2,000 rate charged by Lockheed at a Georgia wind tunnel, he said.

Between 1994 and 1995, it cost NASA an average of $250,000 to operate the wind tunnel, not including personnel costs, said NASA spokesman Michael Finneran. NASA closed the wind tunnel last fall to save money as part of its cost-cutting and downsizing measures. Old Dominion approached NASA about operating the tunnel last October.

Owned by NASA but located at Langley Air Force Base, the wind tunnel was completed in 1931. Overall, it is 434 feet long, 222 feet wide and 97 feet tall. It can blow air up to 120 mph. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1985 by the Department of the Interior. by CNB