Facilities and Equipment: The Aeronautic Wind Tunnel, 1909.
The College had the opportunity of housing several ground-breaking facilities such as an Aeronautical laboratory, in 1909.
‘MY DEAR SIR
My name being known to you as a patron of Aeronautics, and at a time when such serious endeavour is being given to the development of Aerial Navigation, may I have the honour of presenting the enclosed cheque towards founding an Aerodynamical Laboratory at the East London College….
Yours faithfully,
PATRICK Y ALEXANDER.
This enabled an Aeronautical Society to be founded, and Mr A P Thurston was in charge of research under the auspices of the Laboratory Committee of the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain.
Equipment of this nature has remained imperative to the quality of the courses at the College, and in 1967 the Aeronautical Engineering Department had
‘expanded considerably in recent years and the laboratories now contain a number of large low speed wind-tunnels…Shock-tubes and shock-tunnels are used to investigate air flow at the very high speeds and temperatures associated with spacecraft and hypersonic flight.’