Advanced Energy & Aerospace Technology Services
Note: This article appeared in The Montana Standard on Sept 22,2003.
Wind tunnel reaches benchmark
By Janine Jobe of The Montana Standard
It's hard to say it's a world record since nobody else in the world is doing quite the same thing.
But a hypersonic wind tunnel capable of creating pressure of up to 300,000 pounds per square inch is something unprecedented and could -- in a couple of decades -- transform earthbound transportation and eventually space travel.
May 30, the Mariah II project at MSE Technology Applications in Butte set a benchmark of creating a wind tunnel that tested pressures up to 150,000 psi, and engineers celebrated with a demonstration Saturday of the technology that is on the cutting edge of aviation.
"Butte can become the center of aerospace technology in the Northwest," said MSE President Donald Peoples. "We are pleased and proud of our world-class staff."
The unassuming test tank is a slender John Deere green creation, about the length of a small bus. Hoses, wires and computer connections direct the experiments from a control room. The experiments are important because the United States is in a race with other countries, including France and Russia, to refine techniques that will allow crafts to travel at eight to 15 times the speed of sound by using efficient air breathing engines, Peoples said.
"This has never been achieved before, and Butte is leading this effort in the world" he said.
The project is supported by the U.S. Air Force, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, Princeton University, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Boeing North American, as well as local money, plus federal funding garnered by U.S. Sens. Max Baucus and Conrad Burns.
The project is a spinoff of magnetohydrodynamic accelerator research, which began in Butte in the early 1990s.
"One hundred years ago this year, two brothers (Orville and Wilbur Wright) took the first mechanized flight. That craft and every aircraft designed after was designed with wind tunnel data, testing and technology," said Tom Fetterhoff, of the Air Force.
"Wind tunnel technology gave the Germans a technological edge at the beginning of World War II, and our Congress committed itself shortly thereafter to a program that wouldn't let that happen again," he said. "The result is a project like this in Butte, MT.
"This is one of the most technologically advanced programs I've ever worked on. It will transform aerospace technology and is truly a pioneering program."
Reporter Janine Jobe may be reached via e-mail at janine.jobe@mtstandard.com.
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