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Wind Tunnel

National Research Council, Ottawa - Aug. 28, 2006

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.

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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.