Hypervelocity Tunnel 9 wind tunnel

The Hypervelocity Wind Tunnel 9 Facility provides aerodynamic simulation in critical altitude regimes associated with strategic offensive missile systems, advanced defensive interceptor systems, reentry vehicles, and hypersonic vehicle technologies. Tunnel 9 is a blow down type facility with operational Mach numbers of 7, 8, 10, 14, and 16.5. This facility utilizes a unique storage heater which provides supply pressures up to 1430 atmospheres and supply temperatures up to 3460 degrees Rankine and sustains long-duration, constant-condition runs.

Tunnel 9 contains two test legs to accommodate the multiple testing capabilities available at the facility. Each leg contains a test cell which is five feet in diameter and over twelve feet in length. These test cells can accommodate full-scale reentry bodies, full-scale endo-interceptors, and large-scale aerospace vehicles and hypersonic inlet models.

With nominal test times up to 15 seconds, Tunnel 9 provides high test productivity by allowing parametric variations (such as angle-of-attack sweeps, control jet operations, window cooling operations, and/or flow surveys) on heavily instrumented models during a single run.

The combination of constant test conditions, long test times, and large test cells at Tunnel 9 provides a meaningful, productive, and cost-effective test environment for aerodynamic, aerothermal, aerostructural, aero-optic, shroud removal, and hypersonic inlet experiments unavailable anywhere else.