Arrows purchase the Bedford wind tunnel.

After a three year tenancy, Arrows last week became the proud owner of the highly sought after DERA wind tunnel at Bedford.

Built by the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency to perform tests on high speed aircraft (including Concorde) and rockets, the tunnel is recognised as being the best in Europe, due to its air flow quality.

Graham Sprowell, Aerodynamics Dept Production Manager for the Arrows team, explained the background to the purchase. "We heard that the Home Office were getting ready to sell so straight away we put in a bid. Arrows weren't the only team bidding, as we knew there were two other F1 teams in the frame. There has been a massive effort put in by Arrows and the Home Office to come to a mutually agreeable price and make the deal work."

"We knew we had to get the tunnel, we had to buy it - it's imperative to Arrows performance for the future."

Previous to the purchase, Arrows had already beaten out several other F1 teams by securing what was effectively an exclusive long term rental of the Bedford facility. However, as with most rentals, the team was unable to put in any permanent changes to the set up.

"There was a significant downside in that every time we came into the wind tunnel we had to take out the flat floor, install the rolling road, install the strut, and all of the equipment, then go test it. And obviously, at the end of the session, we had to take everything out again, and put the tunnel back how it was."

"Though not ideal, we would get around the logistical problems by taking out block bookings - 6 weeks, 8 weeks, up to 3 months in some cases. The building facility was then ours, and we could run whatever hours we liked, including any overtime we wanted, which is often necessary during car builds. A21 was done here, A22 was done here and obviously now A23 is being done here as well."

Major development plans are now afoot to refurbish the facility, which when complete, will house the model shop, pattern shop, machine shop and a full CAD office as well as being the permanent base for the aerodynamics team.

"Eventually our aim is to supersede Leafield, which is already a top class facility, but we want this to be the jewel in the crown.

The benefits of owning the tunnel are numerous, not least the ability to run different development programmes on the many investigative projects that we can plan.

"We can now undertake many different aerodynamic experiments much more easily, by being able to leave sophisticated instrumentation in place. Now, everything is preset, we know we can define the parameters, whereas before they changed. This will give us a huge benefit in development time."

"We'll keep working up to the deadline for the last race because we have the ability to do that now. Previously, we had to stop developing the current car during the second half of the season, and get on with next years. Now, we don't need to do that because we can run the two programmes side by side."

The purchase of the Bedford wind tunnel has given a huge lift to the team in terms of the options now available to them for aerodynamic testing and development, and the future looks very positive.

"We've got the finest air flow in Europe now, so we're very happy. We're also very pleased with the repeatability of the tunnel itself. We have lots of model development systems to put in place to make the testing quicker, so more data recordings can be taken in the way of pressure tappings and wheel systems. We're trying to get one step ahead, so it's now a case of constant development."

Key details on the Bedford wind tunnel:

Circuit length 244 metres
Max fan speed 330 rev/min
Wind speed 90 m/sec max
Belt (rolling road) rotation speed 60 m/sec