Big Anniversary Celebration

The Notre Dame tradition of excellence in aerospace engineering continues in the Hessert Laboratory for Aerospace Research, which celebrated 15 years of service to the University and its research partners in 2006. Since the early days of aeronautics at Notre Dame (21 years before Wilbur and Orville Wright made history at Kittyhawk), the College of Engineering has developed a cadre of faculty who are still making their mark on a number of industries, including aerospace and transportation.

The 38,000-sq.-ft. Hessert Laboratory, named for its benefactors Thomas J. and Marilyn Hennebry Hessert, contains cutting-edge facilities, such as the Advanced Performance Compressor Laboratory, the Gas-Turbine Laboratory, the Aero-optics Clean Room, the Particle Dynamics Laboratory, the Plasma Flow Control Laboratory, an anechoic chamber, a Mach .05 low-disturbance wind tunnel, an atmospheric wind tunnel, a planar jet facility, high-speed supersonic and transonic wind tunnels, and dedicated machine and electronic shops.

It is also home to the Center for Flow Physics and Control created specifically to develop techniques for modifying fluid flows — through aero-acoustics, aero-optics, fluid-structure interactions, multiphase flows, gas-turbine engines, and flow control — for important applications.

For more information on the Hessert Laboratory of Aerospace Research, visit http://ame.nd.edu/facilities/Hessert.html