WIND-TUNNEL AT AVRIEUX

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82-00457R002300080002-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 15, 2000
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: January 24, 1949
• Content Type: REPORT

25X1A2g
Approved For Release 2000/05/16 : CIA-RDP82-00457R002300080002-0
CLASSIFICATION
CENTRAL INTELLW GEN#Y REPO
INFORMATION RIWW T CD NO.
COUNTRY grange
SUBJECT Wind-tunnel at AvrieUpocument No.
4001.
25X1X6
25X1A6a NO CHANGE in Class.
0 DECLASSIFIED
Class. CHANGED TO: TS S
25X1X6 DDA Memo, 4 Apr 77
77-G,. 77/1763 ..--? --. 25X1A2g 25X1X6
REPORT NO.
25X1X6 THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
the wind-tunnel at Avrieux (Savoie)
on the road from Modane to Lanslebourg is to become the most powerful
instrument of its kind in the world.
2. At Avrieux there are two projects being carried on; one, the wind-tunnel, and,
the other, a hydroelectric center capable of furnishing 100,000 horsepower
or the current necessary to operate the wind-tunnel without depending upon
other power lines.
3. For a distance of ten kilometers from Entro-deux-Faux the waters of the boron,
a swift-flowing torrent near the Dent-Parrach6e, a mountain 3700 meters high,
have been channeled since March 1848 through the efforts of 2500 or more
workers. The remaining ten kilometers to Avrieux are piped and provide an
880 meter hydraulic head. Although the 2000 meter drop between Entre-deux.
Naux and Avrieux may ultimately be utilized, the final arrangement of dame,
piping, and turbine stations is uncertain for financial reasons.
4. It is planned to establish intermediate stations at Entre-deux-Eaux, Termignon,
Sardibress Sollibres, as well as the main plant at Avrieux. On plateaux over-
looking these stations two laboratories will be set up for the purpose of
studying speeds from 2500 to 10,000 kilometers per hour. All this work is
undertaken by the Office National dMEtudms Ea Reoherches Aronautiques and
this bureau has bought a mountain to help provide concrete for the undertaking,
5. The'wind-tunnel Itself is built in a closed circuit in the middle of which is
the power-house. The torrent falls on two thirty-ton turbines each of which
develops 55,000 horsepower and operates two blowers, one of fourteen and the
other of twelve blades. The high-velocity wind thus released passes into a
sheet-iron nozzle 25 meters in diameter and several hundred meters long. This
nozzle makes two right angles. The connecting ellipses whose smaller diameter
corresponds to that of the piping grows to 35 meters in.diamet?r at the largest
dimension. The piping which finally makes the complete circuit narrows to a
point eight motors in diameter in order to bring the air to its greatest
speed of 332 maters per second at the entrance to the testing chamber.
6. The tunnel is aerodynamic in shape and is placed on fixed bases. The model
rests motionless on its supports and the rushing flow of air reproduces the
phenomena of speed. Most of the equipment for the wind-tunne4,,,has been taken
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DATE DISTR. N 241949
NO. OF PAGES 2
0. OF ENCLS.
(LISTED BELOW)
 Approved For Release 2000/05/16 : CIA-RDP82-00457R002300080002-0
from the Oetztal installation. near Innsbruck, Austria, in the French gone
of Occupation. Already 4000 tons of equipment have been transferred to
Avrieux from Austria.
7. The workers, most of whom come from surrounding territory, are carefully
screened before they are hired. There are no prisoners of war and at
no foreigners except a few negroes from North Africa. Apparently there
are no communists among the workers and there have been no strikes.
Approved For Release 2000/05/16 : CIA-RDP82-00457R002300080002-0