Photos of Wind Tunnel Model Tests Smith-Putnam Air Turbine

By Paul Gipe

Photos of Model Tests of the Smith-Putnam Air Turbine conducted under the supervision of Elliott G. Reid, Guggenheim Aeronautic Laboratory, Stanford University, February 3, 1940.

These photos are a rare glimpse of how wind tunnel testing was done in the 1940s. The first photo is obviously posed but revealing of the number of students or assistants on the project. The other photos are beautiful black & white images of the model’s rotor in the throat of the wind tunnel.