The Aircraft Research Association (ARA) is an aerodynamics research institute in the north-west of

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population was 106,940. Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire and seat of the Borough of Bedford local government district. Bedford was founded at a ford (crossin ...

History

The association was founded on 22 January 1952. 14 main British aviation companies funded £1.25m to build a large

wind tunnel A wind tunnel is "an apparatus for producing a controlled stream of air for conducting aerodynamic experiments". The experiment is conducted in the test section of the wind tunnel and a complete tunnel configuration includes air ducting to and f ...

. It was first proposed in 1953 to build the site at

Stevington Stevington is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Bedford in northern Bedfordshire, England. It is on the River Great Ouse four to five miles northwest of Bedford. Nearby villages include Bromham, Oakley, Pavenham and Turvey. Wes ...

, north-east of Bedford. By March 1953, the current site was chosen.

Construction

Work started on Monday 7 September 1953. The wind tunnel was fabricated by Moreland Hayne of east London. The transonic tunnel first ran in April 1956.

Visits

The Duke of Edinburgh visited on the morning of Friday 4 May 1956. He had been planning to land by helicopter in the south-east of Bedford, and to be driven from there to the site by car, but weather conditions were unsuitable.

Structure

The site has the largest transonic wind tunnel in the UK, known as the TWT, with speeds up to Mach 1.4, powered by a Sulzer

axial compressor An axial compressor is a gas compressor that can continuously pressurize gases. It is a rotating, airfoil-based compressor in which the gas or working fluid principally flows parallel to the axis of rotation, or axially. This differs from other ...

. It is 25,000 hp electric-powered.

Wind tunnels

* Supersonic tunnel, Mach 1.4 - 3.5, built in 1958 Two hypersonic tunnels * Mach 4-5 tunnel, built in 1965 * Mach 7 tunnel, built in 1968

Research

Projects worked on include Concorde, the Harrier and most Airbus aircraft. The

Rolls-Royce RB211 The Rolls-Royce RB211 is a British family of high-bypass turbofan engines made by Rolls-Royce Holdings, Rolls-Royce. The engines are capable of generating of thrust. The RB211 engine was the first production turbofan#Three-spool, three-spool e ...

was tested there.''Derby Evening Telegraph'' Thursday 18 August 1988, page 48 The site now works with RUAG of Switzerland.

References

External links

ARA Bedford
{{Authority control 1952 establishments in the United Kingdom Aerospace engineering organizations Aerospace industry in the United Kingdom Engineering research institutes Organisations based in Bedford Research institutes established in 1952 Science and technology in Bedfordshire Technology consortia Wind tunnels