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The Buildings
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Number 9 Exhauster (635)
Built: 1965
Decommissioned: 1993?
In 1965, 6.5 million pounds was invested building Cell 4, the free-jet cell to end free-jet cells.
This supersonic wind tunnel was designed to fly a Concorde power plant (the Rolls Royce Olympus 593) at ground level, sucking
air though at Mach 2, simulating the conditions at 61,000 feet.
The heavyweight plant lined up in the Air House was simply not enough. Even with all eight
exhausters running, the suction was insufficient. Therefore a ninth exhauster was built as an extension to
Cell 4 and housed a multi-stage axial-flow exhauster built by Parsons.
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Number 9 Exhauster looking east, from G Road. The extension can be differentiated by its slightly different steel cladding. 05|05|07 © Simon Cornwell 2007
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As it was essentially an extra set appended to an existing air flow network, Exhauster Number 9
could only be used for Cell 3,
Cell 3 West and
Cell 4. It was also assigned special duty for Cell 4,
being used as suction for the boundary layer bleed flow from the air inlet working section, with the
Air House providing the air flow through the rest of the machine.
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The turbine hall from the western end, looking east over the Parsons
exhauster. 21|04|07 © Simon Cornwell 2007
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The exhauster was driven by a 6000 horsepower synchronous motor. Starting this was a fairly
laborious affair: power was initially taken from the site’s steam turbine in the Power Station
and once 3,000 revs/min was reached, the machine was then synchronized with the national grid frequency which then took over.
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The Parson's control panel which was in the south-west corner of the control room. 21|04|07 © Simon Cornwell 2007
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All this took place within an anonymous steel framed cladded shed, which nicely squared off the architectural
lines of Cell 4. The Parsons turbine almost filled the entire room with a block built
control room situated on the northern side.
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Map of Cell 4 and Exhauster Number 9 found on the floor in the test cell. 21|04|07 © Simon Cornwell 2007
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Although Cell 4 was mothballed in 1980, Number 9 Exhauster was still required for
tests run in Cell 3 and Cell 3 West. It was the last functional part
of the building, and presumably closed when all site testing halted in 2002.
Number 9 Exhauster Walkthrough...
Further Reading
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