Designing a wind-tunnel test: a 1:N model that flies like the real aircraft

A scale model is only a valid stand-in for the full-scale aircraft if the flow over it is dynamically similar — same geometry and α, same Reynolds number Re = ρVc/μ, and same Mach number. Get those right and the measured cl and cd transfer to the aircraft unchanged.

Valid test
Aircraft (full scale)
3.00 m
10.0 km
235 m/s
Wind-tunnel model
20
6.16
110 K
165 m/s

The airfoil in the flow

Streamlines from the exact potential-flow solution — identical for model and aircraft

α = 6°  ·  non‑dimensional (x/c)

What each one physically feels

Gauge pressure Δp = p − p along the real chord of each

Aircraft Model

What the data book records

Cp against x/c — one curve, so the model's coefficients are the aircraft's

Aircraft Model