Centrifuge (Building F49A) at the former RAF Farnborough

Summary

A person-carrying centrifuge facility that opened in 1955 and operated until 2019, designed by the Air Ministry as part of the Royal Air Force Institute of Aviation Medicine at Farnborough Airfield.

Reasons for Designation

Building F49A, the centrifuge at the former RAF Farnborough, is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a well-preserved, post-war, British designed and built aviation research and development facility;
* for its rare and early surviving internal machinery, notably with the equipment in the centrifuge chamber, control room, plant room, and motor pit in its near-original state.

Historic interest:

* as a vestige of the internationally recognised Royal Air Force Institute of Aviation Medicine at Farnborough;
* as part of the development of the nation's aviation industry, its defence, medical, and space research;
* for its contribution to international advances in the research and development of G-protection measures.

History

The need for research into the physiological effects of aviation on the human body was recognised prior to the outbreak of the Second World War, leading to the formation of the Flying Personnel Research Committee (FPRC) in 1939. One of the early decisions by the FPRC was that the RAF Physiological Laboratory should move from RAF Hendon to the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) at Farnborough. In 1943 the Royal Air Force Institute of Aviation Medicine (RAF IAM) was established at Farnborough to carry on the work of the RAF Physiological Laboratory. Although a separate unit to the RAE, the two had strong links. The RAF IAM facilities at the south-east corner of Farnborough airfield initially included a laboratory and office space, hypobaric and cold chambers from the Physiological Laboratory and a pool for flotation experiments. A climatic laboratory was added in 1952, and soon after, the person-carrying centrifuge. Through the second half of the C20, the RAF IAM rapidly became recognised internationally as the centre of research and education in aviation medicine in the United Kingdom serving both military and civil aviation.

The need for a person-carrying centrifuge had been identified by the FPRC in 1939 following visits to German aviation medicine research facilities which highlighted Britain’s lack of research and knowledge of the effects of high G-forces on aircrew, which could include a loss of vision and consciousness. Through the Second World War, Britain began a programme of research, using service aircraft rather than a centrifuge, into how to counter what came to be known as G-LOC (G-induced loss of consciousness) at the RAF Physiological Laboratory, contributing to the development of early anti-G flying suits towards the end of the war.

The design of the centrifuge was finalised by the Air Ministry in the late 1940s, with construction starting in 1951, and its official opening by Lord Thurso in May 1955. Its primary objectives were to gain a better understanding of how G-forces affect the human body and to develop appropriate countermeasures, with the additional purposes being testing aircraft equipment, clinical investigation, and training aircrew. The main contract for its construction was with M B Wild and Co Ltd, the tube structure of the arm was fabricated by Air Service Training Ltd, the gondolas were made by ML Aviation Ltd, and the electrical power generation and the control system by the General Electric Company Ltd.

The centrifuge was driven by a 1,350 horsepower electric motor, requiring 1 megawatt of direct current to operate. The arm was mounted on a 12 ton, 3.6m diameter flywheel attached to a spindle on top of the motor located in a pit below, with a total rotating weight of 40 tons, comprising the motor, flywheel, and arm. When in use, the centrifuge was capable of achieving 9G, with an onset rate (rate of increase of G) of 1G per second, spinning at 30rpm, with the gondolas reaching a speed of 63mph. Unmanned, it was capable of 30G, rotating at 54rpm with the gondolas reaching 115mph. The G-profile (the speed required to reach a desired levels of G) could be controlled in two ways: either manually using a joystick, or automatically using the mechanical cam unit, both located in the elevated control room overlooking the centrifuge chamber. During testing, slip rings allowed for medical monitoring and data recording, and the subject could be observed from a station located at the hub of the centrifuge. Two gondolas, one at each end of the centrifuge’s arm, could be configured differently to allow two separate trials,unlike most other person-carrying centrifuges. The centrifuge facility was central to international advances in G-protection, such as the initial work toward deployable Pressure Breathing for G-protection system (PBG), and testing of the full coverage anti-G trousers (FCAGTs), both of which are used for G-protection in modern combat aircraft worldwide. By the late C20, the performance of modern aircraft outstripped the centrifuge’s ability to fully replicate it. Although the centrifuge could match the level of G required, it could not deliver the necessary G onset rate compared with the aircraft’s ability to achieve in excess of 10G per second.

Proposals were made to modernise the Farnborough centrifuge in 1965; however, they appear not to have been implemented. The proposed changes included modifying the main motor, the motor generator set, control equipment, computer system, and to replace the arm with a much more rigid type with just one gondola and a counterbalance weight.

In its latter years, the centrifuge also took on an aerospace application, with Helen Sharman, the first Briton in space, using the centrifuge test as part of selection before moving to Russia for the main portion of her astronaut training. It was also used to simulate launch and re-entry forces to assess and train Dr Greg Olsen in his successful bid to become the third space tourist. Across its 64 years of operation, a total of 122,133 runs were made in the centrifuge, with its final run being made on 4 March 2019. A modern replacement centrifuge was opened at RAF Cranwell in February 2019.

A series of alterations were made to the centrifuge building complex in the early C21, including the removal of the adjoining ancillary buildings known as F49 and F49B that pre-dated and wrapped around the north and east of the centrifuge building - formerly containing the physiological laboratories; the removal of F118 and F119 – later two-storey extensions adjoining the south-west and south-east corners of the building; F111 – a single storey building to the north-west; and F124 – a single storey element to building F49. New exterior fire escape staircases were also added to the south-east and south-west corners of the building, a new lobby to the northern entrance, a gas bottle store to the northeastern corner, and the reconfiguration of some interior spaces with inserted partitions.

The centrifuge itself is understood to be largely complete across all floors with very little alteration to the structure and machinery during its operational life. The slip rings were replaced in the 1970s, and a gas and vacuum slip ring assembly was added at the same time to provide breathing gas and anti-G trouser air to the gondolas. The gondolas were updated in 1972, and the brake system replaced in 2006.

In 2022 the Farnborough centrifuge was presented with an Engineering Heritage Award by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. It is currently one of the oldest person-carrying centrifuges in the world that remains in its near-original form, plausibly the best-preserved example from the mid-C20 period of research into the effects of G-forces on the human body and the development countermeasures. The centrifuge retains its arm, control room, plant room, and motor pit in their near-original state. Other earlier centrifuges having been demolished or substantially altered.

The centrifuge building is all that remains of the RAF IAM at Farnborough Airfield, with the rest of the facility having been demolished in the early C21 and the site redeveloped for housing, along with most of the RAE site apart from the former airfield which operates as Farnborough Airport.

Details

A person-carrying centrifuge facility opened in 1955 and operated through to 2019, designed by the Air Ministry as part of the Royal Air Force Institute of Aviation Medicine at Farnborough Airfield.


MATERIALS: Primarily of steel-reinforced concrete; rendered and painted. Brick for 1960s extensions to the wings. Windows mostly metal-framed. Glazed doors to the north entrance; large metal doors to the east, south, and west. Asphalt roofs.


PLAN: Circular chamber for the centrifuge with block or wings attached to part of its north and west circumference for ancillary functions.


EXTERIOR: The centrifuge chamber is a windowless circular building of two stages with upper stage slightly inset and a full height projection on the south side for the entrance to the chamber. At the south-east and south-west structural columns are expressed as angled buttresses. On the top of the drum, set back in the centre, is a flat-roofed rectangular storey with windows to all sides and square turret.

The two-storey, flat-roofed ancillary wings wrap continuously around the chamber’s north, north-east, and west sides. The north-east wing has multi-pane windows to both floors and large metal sliding door in the east face for access to the plant room. Abutting is an original single storey brick-built store, now boiler room*. The north wing containing the pedestrian entrance on the north side has a north-west elevation of several tall multi-pane metal-framed windows to the ground floor, a string course and smaller windows to the first floor. The west wing was single storey and has a large metal sliding door in the west elevation which provides access to the store for the centrifuge cars (or gondolas). A pair of smaller plain timber doors provides access to the heating and ventilation plant room. The brick upper storey was added in the later 1960s.


INTERIOR: The chamber contains the centrifuge - a high tensile tubular steel and duralumin arm with cross bracing, 19m in total length, which rotates on a central shaft. At each end of the arm is a car or gondola of an aircraft-type cockpit construction that carry passengers and equipment for testing. Within the central hub are two back-to-back observation stations facing each gondola. Above the suspended ceiling to the chamber are two 25 ton travelling cranes for the installation and service of equipment. The centrifuge is controlled from a first-floor room with windows overlooking the chamber.

The chamber is flanked by a plant room (north-east); a resuscitation laboratory, car (gondola) store and maintenance workshop (north-west); and central lobby to the north. Within the plant room is the original heavy electrical machinery that supplies the power to drive the centrifuge motor and six free-standing cabinets containing 1950's electronics, including for controlling the speed of the centrifuge and supplying the safety systems. The basement is accessed by the plant room and contains the centrifuge drive motor and bearings. Partitioning has been inserted within the northern portion of the car store, forming rooms G8*, G9* and G10*.

To first floor of the wings are an office/conference room, secretary and typist rooms, records office, and toilet facilities all located on a central corridor and short flight of stairs. The corridors have a series of rooflights, one of which retains its original curved glazing. The western corridor is flanked by laboratories, small storerooms, toilet facilities, the recording room, and the control room which has observation rooms positioned either side. The control room is of the 1950s in styling and equipment and of particular interest, although some limited more modern equipment* has been added.

The extra floor on the roof of the centrifuge chamber contains further laboratory and workshops either side of the slip ring room. The small top stage is understood to house the tank room.

Corridors have tiled floors with contrast edging and copper wall uplighters and pendant lights. Some doors have a varnished finish and glazed panels, while others are more functional and painted solid timber. Most doors retain their original ironmongery, and some have their original number or name plates. In the north entrance hall is a curving staircase rising through the building with metal balusters and polished metal handrail in an Art Deco style.

Parts of the heating and ventilation system, lighting system, intercom system, along with laboratory benches and cupboards (though some on the first floor are later in date and of lesser interest), and switches and signs remain throughout.

* Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the C21 gas bottle store enclosure, the late-C20 internal partitions in the car store (forming rooms G8, G9, and G10), the laboratory benches contained within rooms F15, F16, and F17a, and the modern plant contained within the single storey externally-accessed boiler room attached to the north-east corner of the building are not of special architectural or historic interest, however any works which have the potential to affect the character of the listed building as a building of special architectural or historic interest may still require LBC and this is a matter for the LPA to determine.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

496155

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Turnill, R, Reed, A, Trubshaw, B, Farnborough: The Story of the RAE, (1980)
Air Vice-Marshal Ernsting, J, The RAF Institute of Aviation Medicine 1945-1994: Contributions to Aviation and Flight Safety in Royal Air Force Historical Society, Vol. 43, (2008), 18-53
Wg Cdr Green, N D C, The Fight Against G in Royal Air Force Historical Society, Vol. 43, (2008), 67-77

Websites
Farnborough Centrifuge, accessed 17/10/2025 from https://farnboroughcentrifuge.org.uk/

Other
AGARD. Advisory Group for Aerospace Research & Development, AGARDograph No.322, AMP Working Group No.14, High G Physiological Protection Training, (1990)
Farnborough Air Sciences Trust, The Farnborough Man-Carrying Centrifuge, (2025)
Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough. Centrifuge building: plans, 1949 (National Archives WORK 44/41)
Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough. Centrifuge building: central and location plans, 1949 (National Archives WORK 44/42)
Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough. Centrifuge building: central elevations and sections, 1949 (National Archives WORK 44/43)
Farnborough Centrifuge Building: Sectional Elevation Showing Plant Layout, 1952 (Air Ministry Drawing No 2122/52)

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