HomeMy WebLinkAboutCampus_WindTunnelPropeller Blade
On display is one of the first propeller blades used to operate the Oran W.
Nicks Low Speed Wind Tunnel at Texas A&M University. Obtained through
a donation from the Air Force Museum at Wright Patterson Air Force Base
in Ohio, this blade was one of four original propeller blades taken from the
“Enola Gay” Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber. The Enola Gay dropped
the world’s first atomic bomb over the city of Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945.
Completed in 1959, the TAMU subsonic wind tunnel was built at a time
when military surplus equipment was readily available for use in academic
research. While most modern wind tunnels use a turbine blade system
with a variable speed motor to control the movement of air, the TAMU wind
tunnel was designed with a propeller system driven by a surplus U.S. Navy
constant speed electric motor as its power source. The propeller system
allowed the speed of air flowing through the tunnel to be controlled by
changing the pitch of the blades just as it would if installed on an aircraft.
The original blades were cut flat at the tips in order to fit precisely into
the tunnel’s test section. While the blades are no longer in use, the tunnel
continues to facilitate Department of Aerospace Engineering research and
has served notable clients including Boeing, the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration, and professional cyclist Lance Armstrong.
Courtesy of the Oran W. Nicks Low Speed Wind Tunnel and Cushing Memorial
Library and Archives at Texas A&M University