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Hampton’s
tunnel vision
Related
links:
- Q&A with George Newstrom,
Virginia Secretary of Technology
-
Q&A with Charles Steger,
President of Virginia Tech
by
Doug Forshey
Virginia Business
September 2003
Built
in the early 1930s by the U.S. government to help a
fledgling aircraft industry, the wind tunnel at Hampton’s
Langley Air Force Base was in its day the biggest ever
built. At 434 feet long and covering about 2.5 acres,
it could completely house a commercial airliner, and
its two giant spruce propeller blades could produce
wind speeds up to 80 miles per hour.
In
time though, the tunnel lost its allure as new facilities
were built. After NASA decided in the mid-1990s to shut
down the tunnel, Old Dominion University stepped in
to turn it into a commercial testing facility and a
teaching environment for engineering students.
What
they soon found was that their best customers were racers.
About 70 percent of the tunnel’s revenue over a
four-year period came from racing teams who wanted to
do aerodynamic testing. Cars and trucks from the NASCAR
circuit as well as dragsters and open-wheel race cars
have been tested at the facility, one of only three
full-scale wind tunnels in the nation available for
automotive testing.
Now
a regional effort is underway to use the tunnel to build
a cluster of companies in motor sports technology. Hampton,
Langley and local economic development groups formed
the Hampton Motorsports Technology Alliance and are
marketing the region to racing teams and businesses
in the racing industry.
Motor
sports is a substantial market. The performance engineering
market is valued at about $5 billion, according to Frost
Motorsports — an Illinois-based consulting firm
that authored a recent impact study on the industry
for the city of Hampton. “Besides the Charlotte
(N.C.) and Indianapolis (Ind.) metropolitan areas there
is no other area in North America that has the strong
clustering of companies and resources that meet the
overall needs of the high-performance automotive industry,”
says firm President Timothy Frost.
The
competition for that market is formidable. Indianapolis
has the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, site of events
such as the Indianapolis 500, the U.S. Grand Prix and
NASCAR’s Brickyard 400. About 85 percent of Indy
racing teams are based there, according to a spokesman
for the speedway. A recent study by the University of
Indiana directly attributed more than $770 million to
the local economy from racing events. Charlotte has
Lowe’s Motor Speedway, and the state is home to
many of the teams on the NASCAR circuit as well as other
racing circuits.
Virginia
wants a piece of the action as well. Last month Gov.
Mark R. Warner went to the Martinsville Speedway to
announce the launch of the Virginia Motorsports Initiative,
a statewide effort to promote the industry. Virginia
has 37 racing venues, including races on the Winston
Cup circuit as well as drag strips and dirt tracks.
Under the new effort the state’s Department of
Business Assistance will provide $250,000 in low-interest
loans to attract new motor sports businesses to Virginia
and help existing ones expand. The Virginia Tobacco
Commission will provide up to $250,000 for incentives
to attract businesses to the state’s tobacco region.
In addition, Warner’s plan calls for seeking additional
federal funds to expand NASA Langley’s wind tunnel.
If
the tunnel is expanded it will help Hampton’s strategy
of emphasizing the technology infrastructure it offers.
That is “the key asset that sets us apart from
Charlotte and Indianapolis,” says Raymond White,
director of Hampton’s Department of Economic Development.
The motor sports alliance “was formed because we
recognized the relevance of our significant aerospace
assets in this region to the motor sports industry and
the potential for generating high quality employment
and investment by leveraging these assets accordingly,”
says Richard Weigel, president and CEO, Peninsula Alliance
for Economic Development.
Officials
in the region also say that the Hampton area has the
highest per capita concentration of scientists, engineers
and technicians outside of Silicon Valley. It also has
a number of automotive companies already, including
Ford Motor Co. and Siemens Automotive.
The tunnel is its key asset for now. The wind tunnel
“is a vital and unique asset allowing Hampton and
the region to aggressively pursue the motor sports industry,”
says White. “The interest has not only been from
U.S. companies, but entities worldwide have been contacting
us to learn more about our capabilities.”
Despite
their dominance neither Charlotte or Indianapolis has
one — the only other tunnels available for automotive
testing are a Lockheed Martin Corp. facility in Atlanta
and a tunnel operated by General Motors in Detroit.
In addition, the Hampton wind tunnel costs less to use
than its competition — about $1,400 per hour, compared
to about $1,800 per hour for the GM facility and about
$2,500 per hour for the Lockheed-Martin facility. Future
upgrades to the Hampton tunnel will increase its wind-speed
capability to up to 120 miles per hour.
The traffic from racing teams using the tunnel helped
ODU recoup its startup costs and start bringing in money.
“We took an old facility that had been stripped
and built it back into a viable commercial enterprise,”
says Jim Cross, dean of the College of Engineering and
Technology.
The
wind tunnel building still evokes Langley’s history
in aerospace research, with its long cement corridors
and windowless work rooms with dusty airplane models.
In the main staging area — a cavernous space bathed
in a yellow light — vehicles are hoisted into place
from the ground floor two stories below. Once in place,
the all-clear signal is given and the two massive spruce
propellers engage and began slow and steady revolutions.
The giant props act like a vacuum, drawing in air and
forcing it through a series of directional baffles that
force the airflow around one side of the building through
a four-story tunnel that ultimately reenters at the
opposite end forming a large oval. Below the testing
area the racing team’s engineers hover over computers
as sensors send vital information about wind speed and
drag.
Complementing
the tunnel is NASA’s Langley Research Center, a
leading research and development center for the aerospace
industry that was established in 1917 as the nation’s
first civilian aeronautics laboratory. Many technological
breakthroughs in aerospace are also applicable to the
motor sports industry, from aerodynamic applications
to advanced lightweight materials. Langley’s 3,800
civil and contract employees explore new technologies
that make military and civilian air travel safer. In
addition to structural analysis, their advanced research
in the area of atmospheric sciences, which focus on
examining the layers of air that planes and spacecraft
fly through, may also benefit the motor sports industry.
What
Hampton doesn’t have, though, is a race track.
One of the main initiatives for the alliance is promoting
the design and construction of a world-class test track
in Hampton that would compliment the existing research
facilities. “Racing teams need to validate the
wind tunnel data on an actual test track,” says
Eric Koster, director of motor sports operations. “The
two main components we need are the technical capability
and the skilled labor force, but a test track within
20 minutes of our facility would be nice to have.”
At
the present time the closest test track facility is
the Virginia International Raceway in Danville, some
200 miles to the west. A track located in Hampton Roads
and specifically designed and dedicated full-time to
motor sports testing would add a significant asset to
the region.
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