As part of the filming for my
TV series, I visited one of the wind tunnels at the National Research
Council in Ottawa. It was great fun getting knocked around as
they cranked up the fan to 150 km/h. Then they added water. The
droplets were hitting so hard that I could only face into the
wind for a few seconds at a time and afterwards, my lips were
numb.
The wind tunnel was built in
the 50's and can operate either electrically or by using a gas
turbine engine. The fan blade itself has 16 individual blades
that were hand made from wood and spanned over 20 feet, yet it
was balanced enough that I could spin it by hand.