XSB2D-1 Navy/Douglas aircraft

An XSB2D-1 Navy/Douglas aircraft mounted in the 40-foot-by-80-foot test section viewed from center point in guide vanes. This was the first model tested in the tunnel following its construction in 1944.

For 40 full years before the fall of the Soviet Union, the NFAC had housed first the largest, and then the two largest, wind tunnels in the world. But no one could say for sure because until 1986 the United States did not have accurate information on the state of Soviet aerodynamics facilities.