The Windshear 180-MPH Rolling-Road Wind Tunnel in North Carolina can handle full-sized vehicles and test them with wind speeds up to 180 mph in an environment temperature controlled to ± 1°F. The vehicles sit on a 10.5′ wide × 29.5′ long rolling “road” that is a one-millimeter thick continuous stainless steel belt. This “road” also sits on a turn table with a yaw range of ± 8°, and its belt can accelerate from 0 to 180 mph in less than 60 seconds.
As you can see from the above drawing, this is not a small facility. It occupies around 160,000 square feet, and needed approximately 20,000 tons of steel and 2,000 cubic yards of concrete to build.
The 22-foot diameter 5,100 HP main fan, shown above, recirculates 2.85 million cubic feet of air per second at the tunnel’s top speed, and uses 7MW of power in doing so. It probably also makes one helluva leaf blower…
Wind Shear, Inc. [Manufacturer's Site]