There are four basic types of wind tunnels.

Which are low subsonic, transonic,

supersonic, and hypersonic. The wind tunnels are classified by the amount of speed
they can produce. The subsonic has a speed lower than the speed of sound. The
transonic has a speed which is about equal to the speed of sound (Mach 1 760 miles
per hour at sea level). . The supersonic (Mach 2.75 to 4.96) has a speed of about
five times the speed of sound And the fasts of them all the hypersonic (Mach39.5)
which has a speed of more than 30,000 miles per hour. Wind Tunnel Test There are
basically two types of wind tunnel test which are static stability and the pressure
test. With these two tests you can determine the aerodynamic characteristics of the
aircraft. The static stability test the measures the forces moments due to the
external characteristic. These forces include axial, side and normal force, rolling,
pitching and yawing moment. These forces are found by using a strain gauge which
is located on the external portion of the plane. It measures the external flow fields.
Then the shadowgraph is used to show the shock waves and flow fields at a certain
speed or angle of attack. There is also the oil flow which shows you the surface flow
pattern. The pressure test is used to provide the pressures acting on the test object.
This is done by placing taps over the surface. The taps are then connected to
transducers that read the local pressures. With this information they can balance
out the plane. Then the static stability and the pressure test data are combined to
find the distributed loads.