Abstract. We present a new system for the generation of rapid, strong flow disturbances in a wind tunnel that was recently installed at Ecole Centrale Nantes. The system is called the chopper, and it consists of a rotating bar cutting through the inlet of a wind tunnel test section, thus generating a gust that travels downstream. The flow generated by the chopper is investigated with respect to the rotational frequency using an array equipped with hot-wires that is traversed downstream the flow field. It is found that the gust can be described as a superposition of the mean gust velocity, an underlying gust shape and additional turbulence. Following this approach, the evolution of the mean gust velocity and turbulence intensity are presented, and the evolution of the underlying gust shape is explained. The turbulence is shown to be characterized by an integral length scale of approximately half the chopper blade width and a turbulence decay according to E(f) ∝ f−5/3.