BlockBefore

Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel

A National Historic Landmark. Built in 1955. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. 22 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1897.

From the record

“The Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel, located at the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Federal Airfield, Mountain View, California, United States, is a research facility used extensively to design and test new generations of aircraft, both commercial and military, as well as NASA space vehicles, including the Space Shuttle. The facility was completed in 1955 and is one of five facilities created after the 1949 Unitary Plan Act supporting aeronautics research.”

Wikipedia article Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel (Mountain View, California), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 117 National Register listings published here for Santa Clara County · listed in 1985 · category: Structure · built in 1955 · a National Historic Landmark.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service · the Wikipedia article

The listing

  • Address. Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, 94043
  • When was it listed? October 1985
  • Category. structure
  • Census division. San Jose
  • When was it built? 1955
  • National Register reference number. 85002799 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Then and now

1897 to 1997

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 100 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel, surveyed 1997
Topographic sheet covering Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel, surveyed 1897

Fires near this property

121 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 121 fires within 5 miles of Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel between 1993 and 2020, burning about 87 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 5 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined69
Smoking14
Equipment and vehicle use13
Power generation/transmission/distribution7
Debris and open burning6
Misuse of fire by a minor6
Arson/incendiarism5
Natural1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
8 September 2010Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
5 September 2011Arson/incendiarismunder an acreSanta Clara Unitnot named
30 September 2017Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
30 September 2010Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
28 September 2019Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreSanta Clara Unitnot named
28 September 2009Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresDon Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife RefugeDON EDWARDS 09
27 September 2010Smokingunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire Protectionnot named
26 September 2011Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresSanta Clara Unitnot named

Every fire recorded in Santa Clara County

Mines and quarries near this property

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel: 2 producers. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Salt. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Bay EvaporatorsSaltProducer
Mt. View Crushing PlantStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer

Every working recorded in Santa Clara County

Maps showing this location

22 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the middle of the area the National Park Service maps for this listing, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
NASA Ames Wind Tunnel Historic District0.1 miles2017
Arc Jet Complex0.1 miles2017
Flight And Guidance Simulation Laboratory0.3 miles2017
Ames Administration Building0.4 miles2017
US Naval Air Station Sunnyvale, California, Historic District0.5 miles1994
Henry A. Rengstorff House0.9 miles1978

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 85002799 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Santa Clara CountyAll 117 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

  • Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
  • Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
  • How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
  • Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
  • Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.