'Quiet' Mach 6 wind tunnel at Purdue helps shape future aircraft
Wind tunnel photo  Purdue University engineers have developed a
wind tunnel that is the only one of its kind in the world
capable of running quietly at "hypersonic" speeds, helping
researchers to design advanced aircraft and missiles.  No other
wind tunnel runs quietly while conducting experiments in
airstreams traveling at Mach 6 six times the speed of sound,
said Steven Schneider, an aerospace engineer and professor in
Purdue's School of Aeronautics and Astronautics.  Researchers
will use the $1 million wind tunnel to help design advanced
aircraft that travel at hypersonic speeds, or faster than Mach
5, which is about 4,000 miles per hour at sea level.  Purdue
engineers presented a paper about the wind tunnel on January 12,
2006 during the American Institute of Aeronautics and
Astronautics' Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit in Reno,
Nev. The paper was written by Schneider and graduate research
assistants Matthew P. Borg and Thomas J. Jul