Batten College Wind Tunnel Managers Make Personal Commitment to Help the Environment
When they work at Old Dominion University's Langley Full-Scale Tunnel (LFST), Bob Ash and Drew Landman oversee complex aerodynamics testing on big trucks one day, race cars the next.
Built more than 75 years ago by the agency that would become NASA, the LFST is the largest university-operated wind tunnel in the world. Every fighter airplane deployed during World War II was tested in the tunnel.
Ash, a professor of aerospace engineering with the Frank Batten College of Engineering and Technology, is director of the ODU Wind Tunnel Enterprise Center, overseeing the business management of the facility, which ODU took over on a day-to-day basis from NASA about 10 years ago.
Landman, an associate professor of aerospace engineering, runs testing exercises at the LFST, working in particular to find fuel efficiencies in vehicles through reduced wind resistance.
That push for greener vehicles extends to the personal lives of the two long-time faculty members.
When they travel from their homes to their ODU campus offices, Landman and Ash both take environmentally friendly forms of transport. Ash rides his combination road/mountain bike; Landman hops on his electric-powered eGO scooter.
"I spent my youth until my mid-30s riding bicycles," says Landman, who has been at ODU for 21 years. "During my early years at ODU I rode my bike to campus nearly every day.
So a few days a week, you can find Landman picking his way along back streets between his home near the Norfolk Naval Base and the university. The commute is less than three miles, but Landman tries to stay off Hampton Boulevard as much as he can.
"The Hampton Boulevard Bridge (over the Lafayette River) is my biggest obstacle," Landman says. "I commute at 15 to 18 miles per hour, and can hit an all-out speed of 27 miles per hour if necessary."
Ash, 67, has been a bicycle commuter for 30 years, inspired by a university professor who warned him long ago about the dangers of society's dependence on fossil fuels.
"Anything we as individuals can do is beneficial, no matter how small a gesture it seems," says Ash, whose commute to campus is a little more than two miles.
The benefits for Ash are tangible. He doesn't even own an ODU parking pass. "I save $400 a year," he said. "Of course I spent $200 on maintenance for my bike in the last year." That included the repair of two flat tires, which Ash attributes to the construction on campus.