In the years between World War II and the Vietnam War, when aeronautical research was at its peak, a popular watering hole for renowned scientists and engineers was the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory (CAL) located in Buffalo, New York. Before its sale in 1972, CAL made significant contributions to American aerospace research, automotive safety and national defense, but not without stirring up considerable student protest.

Glen Curtiss set up the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company in 1916, which quickly became the largest aircraft manufacturer during the First World War. Meanwhile, Wright Aeronautical established itself as a major designer and manufacturer of aero engines. In 1929, several Curtiss and Wright affiliated companies united and gave rise to the Curtiss-Wright Corporation. Curtiss-Wright eventually opened a research laboratory across the street from the Buffalo airport in 1943. However, three years later, when wartime production ceased, they could no longer afford the research facilities. The laboratory was donated to Cornell University on New Year’s Day in 1946, and Curtiss-Wright officially became known as the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory (CAL).

That same year, Cornell formed its Graduate School of Aeronautical Engineering (now merged with the Sibley School of Mechanical Engineering). CAL gained status as a not-for-profit organization independent from the University, and it received the majority of its funding from government agencies such as NASA and the Air Force.

CAL oversaw several divisions of research, ranging from aeronautics to military demands and automotive safety. At the time, innovation in aeronautical research was booming. Prof. Emeritus Franklin Moore, mechanical engineering, said, “It’s hard to convey how interesting, how exciting, and sort of romantic the idea of flight was in those days. Everybody thought aeronautics was the wave of the future, sort of like how computer science is the wave of the future today.” Moore was the Director of Aerosciences at CAL from 1955 to 1965, before joining the Cornell faculty.

CAL initially focused on the completion of the transonic wind tunnel, the most expensive project leftover from the Curtiss-Wright days. It was designed to study the effects of airflow on aircraft traveling at approximately the speed of sound. Completed in 1947, the wind tunnel is still in operation today. Other major developments in the Aerosciences division involved variable stability aircraft and in-flight simulation. This technology modified the original control systems of existing aircraft to simulate the flight of aircraft models that may not have existed yet.

Meanwhile, CAL began to apply aeronautical research to automobiles, eventually becoming a pioneer in automotive safety. In 1948, the lab presented one of the first prototypes of the crash test dummy, used to simulate the impact of car crashes on the human body. Shortly thereafter, CAL came out nationwide with the Liberty Mutual Safety Vehicle, featuring 60 safety innovations. The vehicle is now on display at the Ford Automotive Museum in Detroit.

During wartime, CAL was also involved with development of military aircraft and weapons, as well as the first model of a fingerprint recognition scanner for the FBI in 1967.

By 1966, CAL began to re-evaluate its relationship with the University, and several factors led to their eventual split. Cornell faced pressure from student activists during the 1960s who were concerned with CAL’s ties to national defense research that would likely be used to fight the Vietnam War.

Cornell was going through a financial crisis at the time, and the Board of Trustees saw an opportunity to make money by selling the lab for $25 million. According to Moore, then head of the thermal engineering department, the divestiture of CAL was a result of “an unholy alliance between radical students and faculty who were against any affiliation with defense activities, and the Board of Trustees who were solely concerned with the University’s financial situation.” The only faculty members to oppose the privatization were those would lose graduate fellowships for the students, Moore said.

Cornell took the first step by incorporating CAL in 1972, when it became known as the Calspan Corporation. After unsuccessful attempts at selling Calspan stocks to the public, the University found a buyer. Arvin Industries, a manufacturer of automotive parts, bought Calspan in 1978 for commercial purposes. The majority of CAL employees who opposed the reorganization of the lab were either fired or quit. But according to Moore, a few of his ex-colleagues who stayed behind managed to salvage some of the original character of the laboratory by obtaining independent government grants, allowing them to continue the research they did under CAL.

Since then, Calspan has partnered with SUNY Buffalo, starting the Calspan-University of Buffalo Research Center (CUBRC), an independent, non-profit research center. In 1995, the company was sold to Space Industries International Inc, and then to the Veridian Corporation two years later. Major areas of research are currently divided into five sectors: crash test data, flight, systems engineering, transonic wind tunnel, and transportation science center.