The Full-Scale Tunnel was a wind tunnel at NASA's Langley Research Center. It was a National Historic Landmark.
In 1929, National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics began construction of the world's first full-scale wind tunnel. The design team was led by Smith J. DeFrance. The tunnel was completed in 1931 at a cost just under $900,000. It was a double-return tunnel capable of moving air at speeds up to 118 miles/hour through its circuit. It had a 30 ft by 60 ft open throat, which is capable of testing aircraft with spans of 40 ft. The wind tunnel is a double-return, atmospheric pressure tunnel with two fans powered by 4,000 hp electric motors.
The Vought O3U-1 biplane observation airplane was the first complete airplane tested in the tunnel. After that, it was used to test virtually every high-performance aircraft used by the United States in World War II. For much of the war, when it was operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the full-scale tunnel was the only tunnel in the free world large enough to perform these tests.