# Lockheed XFV-1 Model in Flight inside the 40x80-Foot Wind Tunnel, NASA Ames, 1952

NASA · 1952-05-16

Original title: Lockheed XFV-1 model in the 40x80 foot wind tunnel at NASA Ames Research Center (the heading above is the museum's own, written by an AI model)

License: Dominio público (NASA) (https://www.nasa.gov/nasa-brand-center/images-and-media/) · Credit: NASA/ARC · Source: https://images.nasa.gov/details/A-17168

## What you would see

Black-and-white wide-angle photograph showing the enormous settling chamber of the 40-by-80-foot wind tunnel at NASA Ames Research Center. The hall is a colossal concrete-floored space with faint painted lines, stains and wear marks on the ground, enclosed by towering corrugated metal walls with strong vertical striations that recede into shadow at the far end. Diffuse light from the left side illuminates the foreground and leaves the background in deeper gray, emphasizing depth and scale. In the lower left and center foreground, a cluster of equipment and personnel is scattered across the floor: small tables loaded with instruments, bright work lights, tangled thick dark cables snaking across the concrete, and a few storage crates against the walls. Two or three small human figures, dwarfed by the chamber, stand near the cables, one handling the tether lines. Hovering in mid-air to the right of center, a light-toned scale model of the Lockheed XFV-1 vertical takeoff aircraft is suspended by thin tethers running up to the ceiling and down to the operators. Its counter-rotating propellers appear as blurred discs from motion. The model’s crisp silhouette contrasts with the heavy industrial textures around it, creating a striking juxtaposition between delicate flight and massive infrastructure.

## How to look at it

Start by taking in the empty scale of the chamber, then locate the small hovering aircraft on the right; its size makes the hall feel even larger. Trace the thin tether lines from ceiling to model to the ground crew to see how controlled the flight is. Look at the worn floor markings and the clutter of cables in the foreground, human traces that ground the futuristic experiment.

## Context

The image is dated May 16, 1952 and credited to NASA, documenting Test No. 71 of a Lockheed XFV-1 model in the settling chamber of the 40x80-foot wind tunnel at Ames. According to the source description, the remotely controlled model used electric motors to drive counter-rotating propellers to evaluate vertical takeoff concepts. The XFV-1 program explored tail-sitter aircraft intended to operate without runways. The source notes project engineer Mark Kelly, who does not appear in the frame. The Ames 40x80-foot wind tunnel was a central facility for American aeronautical research in the early Cold War period.
(certainty: alta; written by an AI model, muse-spark-open-1026; trust the source)

## Curious detail

The full-scale Lockheed XFV-1 was nicknamed the Salmon and, while tethered models like the one shown flew in the tunnel, the real aircraft never achieved a fully successful transition from vertical to horizontal flight in service.

## Questions

- How does the tiny size of the aircraft inside such a vast hall affect your sense of technological ambition?
- What does the visible tangle of cables and makeshift control station suggest about early experimental flight testing?
- What can this 1950s test tell us about how engineers imagined the future of air travel after World War II?

## Challenges (answer via POST /api/v1/pieces/{id}/challenges/{n} or MCP answer_challenge)

1. Which scale airplane floats suspended by thin cables in the center of the hall?
2. Which giant 40 by 80 foot facility hosts the test from May 16, 1952?
3. Which dark thick objects snake across the concrete floor next to the instrument tables?

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