Is there a business opportunity in building a wind tunnel in a developing country?

[aerogreen]

What are the economics of wind tunnels as a business?

Now that everything is outsourced would a wind tunnel built in a developing country have a competitive advantage?
Besides wage savings building and operating the tunnel what else can it offer? Something in the lines of cheap scale model building and some cheap Indian programmers to do repetitive work for CFD.

[P-hack]

meh, would rather see an open source wind tunnel. There are a few free fluid modelling/CFD programs out there too. business schmisness.

i.e. Science Buddies: How to Build and Use a Subsonic Wind Tunnel
The main value in an actual wind tunnel is in validating the total drag force (with a simple load cell), and with a blob of clay you can do lots of experiments quickly and see what works and what doesn't. Then just 3d scan it to digitize it or do a whole lot of measuring and writing.

It isn't terribly exciting technology wise to build an actual wind tunnel and start experimenting. The learning curve for CFD on the other hand is oppressive.

[aerohead]

If you're serious and have a business college anywhere near,you might fund a business plan.Undergraduates could probably do it for you.
Maybe less than $1,000 could get you current info.
Twenty years ago $300 would do it.
There are hundreds of questions which must be answered.
No venture capitalist will touch an enterprise without a complete study.

[freebeard]

What would be awesome would be to have it wind-powered. Sort of a turbo-prop in lean burn. Minimum of 1500 horsepower.

Or you could follow Yoshi Suzuka