F/A-18 High Alpha fighter testing

Tests conducted inside the world's largest wind tunnel at the National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., give researchers a unique opportunity to have a controlled look at the forces affecting flight.

Originally built in 1944 at what was then the National Advisory Council for Aeronautics (NACA) Ames Aeronautical Laboratory, the wind tunnel was originally a 40-foot-by-80-foot facility, upgraded 25 years ago this week -- on December 11, 1987 -- by adding on a massive 80-foot-by-120-foot test section, and renamed the National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex (NFAC).

The facility has tested Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft and rotorcraft at low speeds, F-35 Lightning prototypes, a full-scale UH-60A Black Hawk rotor with Individual Blade Control, scale models of space shuttles, space parachutes, a full-scale replica of the Wright brothers' first airplane, and even tractor trailer trucks.

Here, an F/A-18 High Alpha fighter tests high angle-of-attack aerodynamics in the NFAC 80-foot-by-120-foot test section.