A REVIEW OF THE ROLE OF SOME SMALL HIGH-SPEED WIND TUNNELS IN AERONAUTICAL RESEARCH

Abstract This presentation reviews the contribution made to aeronautical research by workers using the high-speed blowdown tunnels in the Engineering Department at Cambridge. This work is chosen to illustrate the research potential of the many small tunnels in university departments existing world-wide. Studies on basic boundary-layer research together with extensions to complex shock/boundary-layer interactions are highlighted as are parametric studies of wing shapes for flight at high supersonic speeds. It is concluded that workers using small high-speed tunnels still have a significant role to play in aeronautical research in spite of recent developments in tunnel design which have lead to a new generation of efficient large tunnels in which model tests on aircraft at near flight Reynolds numbers are possible.