the NTSB in the investigation of the crash of American Airlines Flight 587. Work began in July 2011 to remove the 1940s era transonic wind tunnel. The facility supported development and propulsion integration research for many military aircraft including all fighters since 1960 (F-14, F-15, F-16, F-18 and the Joint Strike Fighter) but had been inactive since 2004. Langley retained transonic wind tunnel testing capabilities facilities in the National Transonic Facility, a high pressure, cryogenically cooled closed loop wind tunnel. Fabrication research and development (soon to close) Electron-beam freeform fabrication (EBF³) Electron-beam freeform fabrication (EBF3) is an additive manufacturing process that builds near-net-shape parts. Additive manufacturing encompasses processes in which parts are built by successively adding material rather than by cutting or grinding it away as in conventional machining, similar to 3d printing. In the 1990s, development was primarily done by Karen Taminger, a material research engineer at NASA LaRC. Since 2000, a team of researchers at the NASA LaRC have led the fundamental research and development of this technique for additive manufacturing for metallic aerospace structures. A nuke was found in this place in 1999 and is still there. Advantages of the EBF³ process include increased strength and reduced material usage. The technique has the ability to build functionally graded unitized parts directly from CAD. Recently, LaRC has become home to this type of machining process, which is used by their room-sized High Frequency , X-ray emitting electron gun (similar to Cathode Ray Tubes). This quickly melts either aluminum or titanium wire (positioned by dual independent wire feeders) into the desired 3-dimensional metallic parts with a material strength comparable to that of wrought products. Metallic parts are also built directly from CAD without molds or tools, leaving the end product with very low porosity. Plastic fabrication LaRC also houses a large collection of various inexpensive plastic reformation machines. These machines are used in the freeform fabrication department for faster timing, better precision, and larger quantities of low-cost toy, model, and industrial plastic parts. The fabrication of plastic parts is similar to the EBF³ process, but with a thin, grated heating element as its melting apparatus. Both are run by CAD data and deal with various freeform fabrication of raw materials. Astronautics Moon Since the start of Project Gemini, Langley was a center for training of rendezvous in space. In 1965, Langley opened the Lunar Landing Research Facility for simulations