The Air Force Research Laboratory has reactivated its 56-year-old wind tunnel and plans to cut the ribbon next week on the refurbished facility, marking the culmination of a $2.8 million upgrade project. AFRL and Wyle Laboratories personnel helped complete the upgrade to reopen the facility that was closed in 1996, when aeronautical research funding was in “free fall,” Col. Michael Leahy, the director of AFRL’s Wright Research Site told Timothy Gaffney of the Dayton Daily News. The tunnel is known as the Trisonic Gasdynamics Facility.
The Air Force has embraced new technical approaches like open mission systems and rapid software updates for cutting-edge aircraft like the B-21 and Collaborative Combat Aircraft. Increasingly, though, the service is also working to apply these to its older, “legacy” aircraft, officials said this week.