The next generation of remotes were ultrasonic electromechanical devices. It may be what you are describing.

I'm actually excited about commercial companies taking over LEO missions. Those missions tied up tons of NASA budget and they couldn't afford major missions beyond LEO. Now, they hopefully can get the Constellation and SLS systems back on track. That requires the White House and Congress to think beyond the next election.

A friend of mine went to the Detroit Comic Con this last weekend. He snapped this photo in the parking lot.

We've gotten pretty good at it. The big noise producer is the fan. There are straighteners and acoustic treatment upstream and downstream of the fan. Then it's just a matter of removing the wind noise. IIRC, the two corners between the fan and the nozzle both have sound absorbin panels in them, and the test section is covered in sound absorbing panels.

The had a car get "loose" in there one time and it rolled back into the collector and bent/tore one of the sound absorbing panels. After that, the NVH guys saw a noticeable increase in the background noise.

One of the wind tunnels my company has designed and built (and now operates) is Ford Wind Tunnel 8. WT8 is an aeroacoustic tunnel, meaning it is a full aerodynamic tunnel with acoustic treatment so that it can be used for listening for wind noise. NVH engineers are obsessed with that sort of thing.

It's freaky being in there. The test section is about 20 feet wide and 40 or 50 feet long and about 20 feet tall. It appears to be concrete (it's not). Your brain expects echoes in such a large area. There are none. You talk and it's just...dead. It's one of the weirdest things. In fact, one of the first modifications that was made after it went into operation was the addition of a digital windspeed readout next to the nozzle. Apparently, more than one engineer tried to exit the car when the windspeed was well over the "it's not a good idea to get out of the car" level. It is so quiet they could not tell.

I've seen a dozen of these in the last week. I may need to see my doctor for an erection lasting more than four hours.

I keep trying to convince the wife that another dog is A Good Idea™.

I think it's a Series 1.

Except that you have to build it. Though, it is more hands off once you do get it built.

http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/mythbusters-super...

Mythbusters just had an episode where they played with superglue. It seems it truly is amazing stuff. Just don't use it as a seatbelt.