Details
991/0/10053 QUEENS GATE SITE
16-AUG-07 Building F49A - Man-Carrying Centrifug
e Facility
II
Centrifuge Facility, early 1950s.
MATERIALS: Reinforced concrete, red brick, asphalt flat roofs, metal windows.
PLAN: Circular centrifuge facility with ancillary functions housed in adjoining structures which wrap around the northern side of the building. Pedestrian entrance to the north. Large double doors providing access to the centrifuge chamber to the south and west. Additional ancillary ranges beyond are associated but of lesser interest.
EXTERIOR: The Centrifuge Facility is a roughly circular reinforced concrete structure. It rises to the equivalent of four storeys with an additional basement for the centrifuge drive motor and bearings. The core centrifuge building, F49A, is the tallest of the buildings on site and has the appearance of a central flat roofed drum with additions to the roof level. It is part hidden behind additions, such as the later wings to the south known as buildings F118 (pre-mid 60s) and F119 (post 1967) which are not of special interest. The main external entrance to the centrifuge chamber on the south elevation is flanked by these later wings but the height and form of the centrifuge facility exterior can be observed. East elevation includes further sliding large doors providing access to the plant room and multi-paned metal framed windows to the second floor. To the north are numerous similar windows, to both the first and second floors, lighting the internal office and laboratory space. A single storey addition, F49G, and a linking building of two storeys to the north attaches the centrifuge to the L-shaped Building F49, the physiological laboratories block. F49 pre-dates the centrifuge; being shown as pre-existing on an Air Ministry drawing of 1949 but although subsequently associated with the centrifuge it is not regarded as of special interest. To the west the centrifuge facility has a later addition in red brick at 'second floor' level. There are further metal framed windows but in a different, more horizontal style. Beneath are further sliding doors and tall windows to the car store and maintenance.
INTERIOR: Internally, the building is very much laid out with form following function. The circular centrifuge chamber occupies the majority of the central part of the building to the equivalent of two storeys in height. This contains the centrifuge itself: a metal centrifuge arm with cross bracing, over 18m in length, which rotates on a central shaft. Two end gondolas of aircraft type cockpit construction for G-testing, capable of taking passengers and equipment. Central observation station at hub. Above centrifuge chamber are two 25 ton travelling cranes for the installation and service of machinery. The centrifuge is controlled from elevated control room with viewing windows over test area. Control room markedly of the 1950s in styling and equipment although some modern equipment added. The centrifuge chamber is flanked by accommodation housing, on the ground floor: a plant room to east; a resuscitation laboratory; car (gondola) store and workshop for maintenance to west and central northern entrance. Central basement pit, not accessible, containing centrifuge drive motor and bearings. First floor, above the plant room: office/conference room; secretary and typist room; records office and ablutions. Observation room in central north. Western corridor flanked by laboratories, control room and further observation room. Second floor: further laboratory and workshops, which are roof-lit, either side of slip ring room. Third 'floor': little more than a raised turret housing tank room. The interiors are mainly functional rather than decorative but corridors have tiled floors with contrast edging and copper wall uplights and hanging lights. Attractive curving staircase with metal balusters in Art Deco style. Original plant and machinery, notably to plant room, car store, and, of course, the centrifuge itself.
HISTORY: Farnborough was the most important research establishment in the country. It originated, before the First World War, as His Majesty's Balloon Factory, subsequently becoming the Royal Aircraft Factory and from 1918 the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE). Many of the structures of this establishment were built to answer specific research questions and were then demolished when no longer required. Others, such as the centrifuge and the wind tunnel (the latter built in 1936 and redesigned in the 1950s and which has been listed for its architectural and historic importance), are still in use. The RAF Institute of Aviation Medicine (RAF/IAM) was opened in February 1945 on the extreme south-east corner of Farnborough airfield. It had previously been located at the Royal Aircraft Establishment main site where it had been known as the RAF Physiological Laboratory. The Centrifuge Facility of the RAF/IAM was designed by the Air Ministry in October 1949, with a further drawing of April 1952 indicating the plant locations within the facility. The centrifuge itself was made by ML Aviation of White Waltham in Berkshire and the facility was constructed in the early 1950s and was first commissioned on 17 May 1955. The facility was conceived in order to scientifically test, under medical supervision, the effects of acceleration and G-forces on airmen and equipment. It has been used to recreate and understand the extreme G-forces experienced by fighter jet pilots in order to train personnel and also to understand and identify countermeasures to the impacts of G on the human body. The centrifuge is capable of 30 revolutions per minute (equivalent to 9G) for manned experiments and 55 revolutions per minute (30G) for equipment testing. During testing each gondola is electrically powered through slip rings to allow for medical monitoring and data recording. During live testing a doctor observes the subject from an observation station at the hub of the centrifuge and the subject is also CCTV monitored. The centrifuge is controlled from the elevated control room which has viewing windows overlooking the test area. All of the anti-G systems currently used by RAF fast-jet aircrews have been developed and tested here. More recently the facility has also had an aerospace application using the centrifuge to simulate launch and re-entry forces and in 2005 was used to train and assess Dr Greg Olsen, in his successful bid to become the third space tourist. The facility remains in active use.
SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: The Farnborough centrifuge is unique in the United Kingdom and is one of only twenty such in the world. The central core of the facility is remarkably unaltered from its original form and the fact that it remains in operational use is testament to its technological relevance half a century after it was first designed and built. It is of special interest for its historical and technological significance in the development of the nation's aviation industry, its defence, medical and space research.
SOURCES: WD Cocroft, RJC Thomas, Cold War: Building for Nuclear Confrontation, (English Heritage, 2003), 236-241.
Air Ministry drawing No 1239/49, October 1949, Farnborough Centrifuge Building General Plans.
Air Ministry drawing No 1240/49, October 1949, Farnborough Centrifuge Building: General Plans & Location Plan.
Air Ministry Drawing No 2122/52, 19 April 1952, Farnborough Centrifuge Building: Sectional Elevation Showing Plant Layout.
