In
1942 five aircraft companies, including Douglas, Lockheed, and McDonnell, joined
forces to create the Southern California Cooperative Wind Tunnel to test aircraft
for aerodynamic data. The 19,000-square-foot facility was one of the first large
supersonic wind tunnels in the world. The “Coop Wind Tunnel” contributed
to the development of postwar commercial and military aircraft from 1945 to
1960. In 2001 Art Center College of Design acquired the building for use as
a public exhibition hall. The Wind Tunnel is a stupendous artifact of brute
industrial force testing itself against the extreme forces of nature it must
conquer.