Asia's largest trans-sonic wind tunnel is completed in Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan Province in southwest China. The trans-sonic wind tunnel is an indispensable testing infrastructure for complex spacecrafts. Only several developed countries in the world have built such tunnels, according to some Chinese experts engaged in the project. The tunnel is 66 meters long and 33 meters wide. It was designed and built independently by Chinese experts and its cost was only one sixth of the same type of wind tunnel overseas. According to Chinese astronautic experts, major function specifications of the tunnel are of international standards. China has spent nearly six years on building the tunnel since its construction began in July 1994. Now that the tunnel is complete, flight experiments have been carried out on various new airplanes, missiles and rocket carriers. |