Elton W. Miller, chief of aerodynamics at what is now NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, stands in the entrance cone of the Propeller Research Tunnel in this Sept. 9, 1926, photo. In front of the entrance is the Sperry M-1 Messenger, the first full-scale airplane tested in the tunnel.
The Propeller Research Tunnel, or PRT as it came to be known, was only the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics’ third wind tunnel and the largest one built. The PRT was in fact the largest tunnel built at that time anywhere in the world. Designed to accommodate a full-scale propeller, the throat of the PRT was 20 feet in diameter.
Learn more about the PRT from the report originally published in December 1928.
Image credit: NASA
1926年9月9日的这张照片中，埃尔顿·W·米勒（Elton W. Miller），时任现今位于弗吉尼亚州汉普顿的NASA兰利研究中心的空气动力学主管，站在螺旋桨研究风洞（Propeller Research Tunnel, PRT）的入口锥内。入口前展示的是斯佩里M-1信使号，这是在风洞中测试的第一架全尺寸飞机。
螺旋桨研究风洞（简称PRT）是国家航空咨询委员会（NACA，NASA的前身）建造的第三座风洞，也是当时规模最大的一座。实际上，PRT在当时是世界上最大的风洞，设计用于容纳全尺寸螺旋桨，其喉部直径达20英尺。
了解更多关于PRT的信息，请参考最初于1928年12月发布的报告。
图片来源: NASA
