Last Full-Scale Wind Tunnel Test

Below is an email and photos from Bob Stuever as a follow-up to the email that Dick Hueschen sent out on January 30, 2026.

Jay Brandon and I had the very last NASA test in the FSWT, in 1995, before ownership/management of it was turned over to Old Dominion Univ.  It was a study of wake turbulence encounters, and we did a full suite of free-flight, static, and I think forced-oscillation dynamic tests, using the NASA B737-100 as a model.  We later flew the full-scale airplane in wake encounter flight tests (which I also flew aboard) in an attempt to compare wind-tunnel to full-scale.  The free-flight tests were to study the dynamics of wake encounters, the static/forced-oscillation tests were to primarily measure forces/moments in wakes plus capture supplemental content for a planned simulation database.  

Three of several pictures I have are attached [see links below], and one clearly shows the tunnel fans one of which is now in the NA&SM per the article below [referring to the article Dick sent on 1/30/2026].

Joe Chambers described this test along with countless other tests in his very good historical book on the FSWT, Cave of the Winds, The Remarkable History of the Langley Full-Scale Wind Tunnel.

Bob Stuever
Wichita, Kansas

https://larcalumni.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/737-WV-1995-Static-1.jpeg

https://larcalumni.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/737-WV-1995-Static-2.jpeg

https://larcalumni.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/737-FF-1995-6-scaled.jpeg