Greig Brebner and Scott Kington (left and right) from Blunt umbrellas, showing some of the umbrellas that engineer Neil Jamieson (centre) tested in the OPUS wind tunnel (image: A. Ballance)
OPUS International’s Central Laboratory at Gracefield houses the longest wind tunnel in the Southern Hemisphere. The 70-metre long tunnel is mostly used to test new building designs, but engineer Neil Jamieson is happy to test anything – including umbrellas. Alison Ballance joins Greig Brebner and Scott Kington from Blunt Umbrellas as they try out some of their umbrellas at the wind tunnel’s maximum speed of 120 kilometres per hour, and they explain how they’ve been designing and engineering an umbrella that can withstand strong winds and be comfortable to use.
