rotornut
10th Mar 2007, 11:44
Team studies icing on helicopters
Steve Kuchera Duluth News Tribune
Published Friday, March 09, 2007
After a break of several winters, an Alabama Army unit has returned to Duluth to test how well aircraft handle icing conditions.
Too much ice on a plane’s wings or a helicopter’s rotors and “you stop flying and gravity wins,” said Jim Correia of the Army Aviation Technical Test Center, based at Fort Rucker, Ala. Correia is leading the center’s team in Duluth.
“Most aircraft do not handle icing conditions well,” Correia said.
To determine how well this Italian-built Agusta helicopter will handle icing conditions, its pilot flies behind a specially equipped Army helicopter that produces a cloud of freezing mist.
It’s best to learn how well, or even if, an aircraft will handle icing under controlled conditions. That’s why the Army unit began coming to Duluth 23 years ago.
To test aircraft, the unit uses a Chinook helicopter equipped with an internal 1,800-gallon water tank and an external boom sprayer. The aircraft being tested trails the Chinook, flying through the cloud of freezing mist it produces.
Flying in formation with the Chinook is a light plane, equipped with sensors and an onboard computer that measures and records the icing conditions that the test aircraft is experiencing.
“We only fly when the temperatures are just right and we know we are going to be safe,” Correia said.
The sight of three aircraft in close formation — one of them spraying something — has attracted attention and piqued curiosity across the region.
Robert L. Ginn of Duluth saw the formation flying along Lake Superior’s North Shore a few times over the past week.
“The first time I saw them, it looked like a helicopter and two little airplanes,” he said. “But yesterday, we looked close — I even had my telescope out — and there was a small helicopter on one side and a light airplane on the other side. You could see a rack hanging under the big helicopter and you could see a spray coming off it. I was wondering what they were spraying.”
Such testing has helped the military develop several aircraft to withstand icing. Blackhawk helicopters with heated rotors can fly in moderate icing conditions for extended periods of time.
“This becomes important for things like medevac operations, where you have to be able to get up into an area,” Correia said.
In its early years, the Army unit primarily tested military aircraft. But a few years ago the federal government allowed the test center to offer its services to civilian firms at break-even prices. This year, the unit is testing a helicopter built by the Italian company Agusta. The firm hopes to develop a helicopter that would allow it to operate on North Sea oil rigs and in other wintry locations.
Correia’s team began arriving in Duluth on Jan. 28. A huge, Russian-built transport plane delivered the Italians, their helicopter and other equipment on Feb. 3. After several test flights, icing tests began Feb. 17. The Italians and the Army unit will leave by month’s end.
This may be the last winter the unit comes to Duluth. Because of new hangars at the 148th Fighter Wing, the Guard unit has no use for the hangar that the icing test unit has leased. The federal government probably will classify the hangar as excess property and turn it over to the city of Duluth, 148th Fighter Wing spokesman Lt. Col. Mark Vavra said.
STEVE KUCHERA can be reached at (218) 279-5503 or by e-mail at [email protected].
Steve Kuchera Duluth News Tribune
Published Friday, March 09, 2007
After a break of several winters, an Alabama Army unit has returned to Duluth to test how well aircraft handle icing conditions.
Too much ice on a plane’s wings or a helicopter’s rotors and “you stop flying and gravity wins,” said Jim Correia of the Army Aviation Technical Test Center, based at Fort Rucker, Ala. Correia is leading the center’s team in Duluth.
“Most aircraft do not handle icing conditions well,” Correia said.
To determine how well this Italian-built Agusta helicopter will handle icing conditions, its pilot flies behind a specially equipped Army helicopter that produces a cloud of freezing mist.
It’s best to learn how well, or even if, an aircraft will handle icing under controlled conditions. That’s why the Army unit began coming to Duluth 23 years ago.
To test aircraft, the unit uses a Chinook helicopter equipped with an internal 1,800-gallon water tank and an external boom sprayer. The aircraft being tested trails the Chinook, flying through the cloud of freezing mist it produces.
Flying in formation with the Chinook is a light plane, equipped with sensors and an onboard computer that measures and records the icing conditions that the test aircraft is experiencing.
“We only fly when the temperatures are just right and we know we are going to be safe,” Correia said.
The sight of three aircraft in close formation — one of them spraying something — has attracted attention and piqued curiosity across the region.
Robert L. Ginn of Duluth saw the formation flying along Lake Superior’s North Shore a few times over the past week.
“The first time I saw them, it looked like a helicopter and two little airplanes,” he said. “But yesterday, we looked close — I even had my telescope out — and there was a small helicopter on one side and a light airplane on the other side. You could see a rack hanging under the big helicopter and you could see a spray coming off it. I was wondering what they were spraying.”
Such testing has helped the military develop several aircraft to withstand icing. Blackhawk helicopters with heated rotors can fly in moderate icing conditions for extended periods of time.
“This becomes important for things like medevac operations, where you have to be able to get up into an area,” Correia said.
In its early years, the Army unit primarily tested military aircraft. But a few years ago the federal government allowed the test center to offer its services to civilian firms at break-even prices. This year, the unit is testing a helicopter built by the Italian company Agusta. The firm hopes to develop a helicopter that would allow it to operate on North Sea oil rigs and in other wintry locations.
Correia’s team began arriving in Duluth on Jan. 28. A huge, Russian-built transport plane delivered the Italians, their helicopter and other equipment on Feb. 3. After several test flights, icing tests began Feb. 17. The Italians and the Army unit will leave by month’s end.
This may be the last winter the unit comes to Duluth. Because of new hangars at the 148th Fighter Wing, the Guard unit has no use for the hangar that the icing test unit has leased. The federal government probably will classify the hangar as excess property and turn it over to the city of Duluth, 148th Fighter Wing spokesman Lt. Col. Mark Vavra said.
STEVE KUCHERA can be reached at (218) 279-5503 or by e-mail at [email protected].