Historic Photos of NASA's Cavernous Wind Tunnels

I explore the massive wind tunnels built by NASA and its predecessor, NACA, throughout the 20th century. These cavernous facilities at Langley and Ames Research Centers tested everything from early airplanes to the Mercury capsule and Space Shuttle. While many older tunnels were demolished in the 1990s due to computer simulations, these historic images reveal the incredible scale of the engineering required to push the boundaries of flight.

"The guide vanes, which formed an ellipse 58 feet high and 82 feet wide, cut across each cylindrical tube at a 45-degree angle."