Historical Photo of the Month - November 2005

Wind Tunnel Groundbreaking
Photograph Number M-245C

In January 1947, ground was broken for building 79, which would house a new 20 inch supersonic wind tunnel. At the time, JPL was working under a contract with U.S. Army Ordnance to design, build, and test guided missiles. Each time design changes were made, scale models of the missiles were tested in the existing 12 inch wind tunnel, and later in the new 20 inch wind tunnel. In June 1950 the first tests were done in the wind tunnel. It went into continuous operation in the fall of 1951. During the 1950s, the Wind Tunnel Section, part of the Aerodynamics Division, performed wind tunnel tests in connection with Air Force and Army Ordnance projects and the Lab's aerodynamic research program.

Attendees standing near the existing wind tunnel compressor house were, from left to right:
Dr. Clark Millikan, Director, Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory and Co-Operative Wind Tunnel
Allen Puckett, former Section Chief, JPL Wind Tunnel
Dr. Louis G. Dunn, Laboratory Director
Dr. Lee A. DuBridge, President, California Institute of Technology
Major General Everett S. Hughes, Chief of Ordnance, U. S. Army, turning the first shovel of earth
Dr. Theodore von Karman, former Director of Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory
Col. B. S. Mesick, former Ordnance Laison Officer
Dr. Robert Millikan, Vice President, Board of Trustees, California Institute of Technology
Officers of the U. S. Air Force, Army and Navy are shown in the background.
[From Lab-Oratory, July 1953, p. 7]

For information about wind tunnels, see the index of previous Historical Photos of the Month. For information about wind tunnel records in the Archives, or about the history of JPL, contact the JPL Archives.

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