Construction of Wooden Propellers for Wind Tunnels 1941 NACA Langley Research Center (Patreon)

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Silent, with title cards. 'Footage from the early NACA era at NASA Langley Research Center.  The NACA were unable to obtain contractors to complete the construction of the blades because of the unusual size and specifications that were required.  These blades would fill the new tunnels the NACA were creating.  The process is extremely interesting to watch as these modelmakers were taught how to make these large blades. Several men worked on a blade at one time making teamwork very important to the process.'

Originally a public domain film from NASA, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.

The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).

History

Since beginning research operations in the early 1920s, Langley has benefited from unique, highly professional design, fabrication, and maintenance efforts from several historical shops. In the East Area these facilities have included early woodworking and pattern shops located on the second floor of the original NACA Headquarters (Building 587), the East Shop (Building 647), and the Dynamic Model Shop (Building 720A). In the West Area notable shops have included the West Model Shop (Building 1150), the West Shop (Building 1194), the Machine Shop (Building 1225), the Fabrication Shop (Building 1232A), and the Composite Model Development Shop (Building 1238B).

One of the most productive and innovative support facilities in the West Area during the NACA and NASA eras was Building 1150, best known as the West Model Shop. Constructed in 1940, the shop contributed some of the most valuable services ever undertaken for Langley for over 39 years until it was demolished in 1979. Over its lifetime it was known as the Structures Research Laboratory Shop, the Propeller Shop, and the West Model Shop. The following discussion covers the general history of the shop as well as selected examples of the hundreds of the very significant fabrication and repair activities that were conducted there.

https://crgis.ndc.nasa.gov/historic/1150

...Structures Research Laboratory Shop

In 1939 Langley acquired the property now known as the West Area and began to clear property for the construction of research facilities...

Even as the shop was under construction, the NACA had moved aggressively with a building plan for several wind tunnels...

Propeller Shop

The first major work area for the new shop began as soon as it opened for operations in June 1940. Construction of new NACA wind tunnels in the 1940s such as the nearby 16-foot Transonic Tunnel (Building 1146), Stability Tunnel (Building 1149), 9-inch Supersonic Tunnel (Building 1191), and the 7- by 10-foot Tunnels (Buildings 1212A and 1212B) brought immediate demands for the construction and repair of wind-tunnel propeller blades as well as for the fabrication of sophisticated wind-tunnel models. Throughout World War II the shop specialized in propeller support work, acquiring and finishing special knot-free Sitka spruce lumber from the state of Washington. The spruce planks were treated to specified levels of moisture (12%) in a special kiln drying room... In addition to building blades for Langley's tunnels, the shop fabricated blades for other NACA laboratories, including the Lewis Laboratory at Cleveland. It’s expertise in wood working also led to special requests for wooden tables for Langley’s senior staff and offices. In recognition of this outstanding capability, the shop became known as the Propeller Shop or "Prop Shop" in the early 1940s. In the 1950s NACA management turned to industry contractors for the construction of wooden wind-tunnel propeller blades to accommodate the increased workload in the West Model Shop for model fabrication and startup activities for the space program. Although wooden propellers were no longer built by the shop, it pioneered new fabrication techniques for blades including the composite fiberglass procedures in the construction of the blades for the 8-foot Transonic Pressure Tunnel. In later years, the shop continued to provide repair work for operational tunnels that had suffered blade damage due to ingestion of model components... the Prop Shop was so inundated with model fabrication work for the emerging Langley wind tunnels that it became known as the West Model Shop in 1945.

West Model Shop

The 1950s brought new challenges in fabrication techniques and a wide variety of critical research support functions to the West Model Shop...