WHAT IS INSIDE THOSE LARGE STEEL BALLS IN THE BACKGROUND!

[Shultzie]

Great shot of light plane frighteningly hanging by its landing gear on power poles next to our old beloved Wind tunnel...
WHAT IS INSIDE THOSE TWO LARGE STEEL BALLS IN THE BACKGROUND SHOWN IN PHOTO.

"EMPTY STEEL BEER CANS...FROM RAAAAAAAAAINNIER-BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!"

Those large "Steel Balls" are the airstorage tanks that supply compressed air for the supersonic wind tunnel test chamber.
The steel cans were included to absorb the heat build up when air is compressed.

WHAT A BEER PARTY WAS HAD BY THE MODEL DESIGN BUNCH AND WIND TUNNEL MODEL SHOP MODEL MAKERS WHO HAD TO DRINK ALL THAT BEER BEFORE THEY COULD BE USED?

NAW! That was only a myth started...as those old steel cans were purchased from all the local breweries BEFORE any brew as added. Sadly they were empty when the dump trucks arrived.
I hear the engineering and model builders were very disappointed when the "BEER PARTY HAD TO BE CALLED OFF!
DRINKING ON COMPANY PROPERTY...IS A NO NO NO.....(except for the corp. bunch of near de wells!

[Shultzie]

File was too large...
Again here is a few of the contents of those Wind Tunnel "STEEL BALLS!" Those larger sized tin cans were for Porta-pottys.....(from all that beer drinking and no restrooms available that far away from the tunnel complex.

[Bill Little]

Hey, Shultzie, I see some Olympia in there!
BTW: Paul gave me a Rolling Rock back at the '93 NATS.  Now, with the diabetes, ...............

[don Burke]

Northrop has a similar "ball" in Hawthorne, CA for it's supersonic tunnel.  It is used as a vacuum chamber.  It is pumped down as far as possible, then when the valve into it is opened, they get a short time very high speed flow of atmospheric air through the test section. 

[Shultzie]

Northrop has a similar "ball" in Hawthorne, CA for it's supersonic tunnel.  It is used as a vacuum chamber.  It is pumped down as far as possible, then when the valve into it is opened, they get a short time very high speed flow of atmospheric air through the test section. 

GADS!
U MEAN THAT ALL THESE YEARS...I HAVE BEEN MISTAKEN THAT AIR WAS BEING PUMPED OUT INSTEAD OF IN???

When I think back about this.....this makes sense, doesn't it....not only does the cans absorb heat from all the pressure but for a fact that must be the reason they try to keep the heat inside the balls instead of running throught the test chamber and destorying the models etc.
DUMB N' DUMBER DON (NO WONDER I AM EXILED IN GIG HARBOR?)

[Gary Letsinger]

Don,

You were right the first time.  The Boeing supersonic tunnel was a 'blow down' tunnel.  They can be built either way.

Gary Letsinger

[Shultzie]

Don,

You were right the first time.  The Boeing supersonic tunnel was a 'blow down' tunnel.  They can be built either way.

Gary Letsinger

GARY....GARY!!!!! IS THAT YOU? HEY! U DA MAN OF DA DAY!!![/glow][/move]

For those of you who haven't met Gary....He has been our beloved brotha in balsa, model design and his Aerodynamic Engineering is legandary here around this planet and has given so much to so many of us stunt grunts over the years...

NO ROSE THROWIN GANG! GARY'S MY STUNT GURRRUUUUUUU! ...AND IN LIFE SINCE WE WERE LITTLE KIDDIES! Gary has such a great EYE-BALL WHEN IT COMES TO PHOTOGRAPHY, MODEL BUILDING and his stunt model designs have been an inspiration to so many of us unskilled untrained nerdolddo stunt design and builders and believe me......

Over the years, I have gone to the GARY LETSINGER'S SCHOOL OF DESIGN AND BUILD TEAMS...MANY MANY TIMES!
Whether its engines....stunt model platforms....or cameras.

Gary...
Check out STUNT GRUNT OF THE DAY...Where we lift up MARK FREEMAN. Also that B&W Photo of Mark and his Novi 3 was one of Gary's.
GARY, IF YOU HAVE ANY PHOTOS OF MARK'S OTHER MODELS (or any other of those great stunt model photos that we haven't seen of yours......

Thanks for adding some clarity to my Supa-sonic Beer-Balls post.


DIG EM OUT...SCAN AND ADD THEM TO OUR STUNT GRUNT OF THE DAY?

Hey Grunts... attached here is a photo of me cheezin and posing in Gary's beautiful full scale Glider taken during one of his cross country contests in Eastern Wa. (Naturally he knew bettern' to let me even think about taking the controls...

 Gary was an accomplished sail plane pilot and later he became an avid sail boat owner and sailed Puget Sound on a regular basis...and I can assure you he was one great boat Captain and was often accompanied by a lame but trying crew composed of Carol and I...and a bunch of long time Aero and stunt grunt folks.

Thanks Capt. Letsinger for puttin' up with all these nerd-de-wells as crew members knowing full and well that GARY ALWAYS KNEW WHO HIS TRUE FRIENDS WERE AT "HAUL OUT TIME!"

Ahhh those were the daze.....Gary, when you can...also scan some of those beautiful winning models of yours that you have built over the years?

[Steve Fitton]

One of our club members, besides flying B-25Js during WWII, worked for many years at Nasa Langley, alongside cats like Max Faget, designer of the Mercury spacecraft.  Our buddy Jim has alot of neat stories to tell about the Mach 8 wind tunnel when he worked in there!