Aircraft Research Association

ARA

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Timeline of Significant Events

1952  ARA Formed and Ron Hills Appointed as Chief Executive
1956  HRH The Duke of Edinburgh officially opens ARA
1957  First Transonic Wind Tunnel test for industry
1958  Supersonic Tunnel
1965  Mach 4 - 5 Tunnel
1966  2-D Tunnel
1968  Mach 7 Tunnel
1970  First test with TPS powered model
1978  MST nacelle and TPS calibration facility
1978  Captive Trajectory Rig
1987  Large scale propeller tests in TWT
1988  TWT Acoustic Liner
1990  TWT Honeycomb flow smoother
1991  Enhanced Twin Sting Rig for TWT
1991  Large Scale Thrust Measuring Rig
1993  First Cryogenic model manufactured at ARA (ETW reference model)
1998 Anti-surge controller for TWT Supersonic Circuit
 2000 TWT Noise enclosure - Phase I- 24hr operation for TWT 
 2000  Brown Boveri compressor replaced with Sulzer axial flow compressor
 2003  TWT Noise enclosure - Phase II
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