New wind tunnel

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Lou Cattafesta stands in the test section of the University of Florida’s newly completed anechoic, or anti-echo, wind tunnel. The tunnel is one of only a handful in the country and currently the largest at a U.S. university designed specifically to reduce noise from jets passing overhead and landing. Engineers will use the $400,000 tunnel to learn how to reduce the noise caused by the flow of air over wings, flaps and landing gear – the primary sources of the annoying sound that reaches people on the ground when planes are landing.

(Kristen Bartlett/University of Florida)
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