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Wind tunnel testing usually requires positioning of the aircraft model in the airstream. This paper presents the design philosophy for a typical generic automatic control system for use in the wind tunnel facilities at Arnold Engineering Development Center in Tullahoma, Tennessee, and is presently used to accurately control the position and/or velocity of an aircraft in one to six degrees of freedom while taking into account the effects of outside influences. Selection of feedback devices, controller design concepts, safeguard implementation, operator status and display capabilities, and mechanism movement simulation are topics that will be addressed.