Safety
Collins Aerospace Building Ram Air Turbine Wind Tunnel
The company is expected to complete the $18 million facility in 2022.
When completed next year, Collins Aerospace's new wind tunnel will be able to test ram air turbines for aircraft from the size of a business aircraft to commercial airliners, such as for the Boeing 787 as pictured here. (Photo: Collins Aerospace
When completed next year, Collins Aerospace's new wind tunnel will be able to test ram air turbines for aircraft from the size of a business aircraft to commercial airliners, such as for the Boeing 787 as pictured here. (Photo: Collins Aerospace

Collins Aerospace broke ground Wednesday on an $18 million ram air turbine (RAT) wind tunnel facility that the company said will help streamline its testing process at its Electric Power Systems center of excellence in Rockford, Illinois. Collins’s RAT products are designed to act as the “small but mighty heart” of an aircraft emergency power system, the company said. Deploying from the wing or fuselage, the system rotates a small turbine to extract power from the airstream in cases when the aircraft loses electrical power in flight.