An experimental study of the characteristics of the turbulent field upstream of a flat plate placed normal to the mean flow was performed when the integral scale of turbulence is small with respect to the characteristic dimension of the obstacle. Measurements of the turbulence intensitiesu′1andu2, the spectrumE11( f˜) taken at different distances from the plate, and the pressure spectrum &thgr;pp( f˜) measured at the stagnation point are given in the framework of a comparison with Hunt’s theory.