The New Ford Aerodynamic Windtunnel in Europe

The necessity for improved vehicle fuel economy had been one of the prime motivators in the construction of Ford of Europe's new aerodynamic windtunnel in Cologne, Germany. The Product Development Group obtained approval for the construction of a $ 10 million open test section aerodynamic facility in 1980. The windtunnel was launched after a 4 year's design and engineering period with DSMA, Toronto/Canada, in April 1984. This paper describes the new facility capable of developing both scale and full size models at comparable Reynolds-numbers. This is made possible through the use of removable inserts in the test section.