The Ice Plane Cometh

South Korea’s extreme-weather aircraft-testing facility opens

By Greg Soltis Posted 11.17.2008 at 12:57 pm 3 Comments

Show Off: The ice coating is just for effect. Heat from air resistance would melt any ice on planes in-flight. Lee Jin-Man

The South Korean air force showcased its new aircraft testing and evaluation center on opening day, September 8, by coating this F-4 Phantom fighter jet with ice. In the facility, engineers simulate conditions that a plane might encounter at 40,000 feet to determine if the craft’s composite structure—particularly in its wings—can endure the freezing temperatures without cracking. The test center is the second-largest of its kind in the world. (The largest is McKinley Climatic Laboratory at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.)

“But you’d never see a plane [flying] like that,” says Paul Lagace, an aerospace engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, of the plane’s ice-swathed exterior. Even when a fighter streaks by at chilly high altitudes, air friction against the craft keeps the surface significantly warmer than the air around it, he explains. Planes are most likely to acquire ice buildup while still on the tarmac.

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3 Comments

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klark

11/17/08 at 4:35 pm

Cool, but will it work?

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acejas

11/19/08 at 3:46 pm

Sooooooo, at what speed does wind chill change to friction that melts the ice and keeps the skin of the plane warm?

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Mike Cook

from Kent, WA

11/20/08 at 5:17 am

I am grateful that someone is researching how composite materials behave in extreme cold. It has been true for years that the stratosphere was getting colder despite alleged global warming (as verified by balloon and satellite readings that had to be recallibrated by fiat to make the cooling go away.) Nevertheless, the globe cools even as more aircraft become made of composites.

This research will be invaluable because methods of space launch are also converting to composite materials and space is extremely cold.