If I close my eyes, I can picture the outline of an airplane against the glowing fog in the background created by hangar lights on the other side of an icy ramp in North Dakota. I can feel the cold air on my face and imagine the steam exhaled from my mouth. You may have a similar memory.
I can also see the pristine white Canadian fields, blanketed by snow and the slushy centerline of the runway at International Falls Airport. I remember the waves of anti-ice fluid flowing back along the wing, and I can almost feel the difference in force required to rotate the aircraft.
Those two memories are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg, the host of memories of cold weather testing, and this edition covers some of those topics in A Limited Survey of Cold Weather Flight Test Safety – Three introductory observations about Cold Weather and Flight Test, which flows right into the next features: Sample of Cold Weather Flight Test Safety Papers, and an account of Lockheed F-117 Cold Weather Testing.
There’s much more in this issue as Flight Test Safety Fact and the podcast both celebrate major milestones, including some of the data that describes our journey. As always, we crave your feedback, which you can email to the editor. If you have a memory you’d like to recount, we’d be delighted to share it in a future edition.
Download Flight Test Safety Fact, 24-01.
P.S. A new year is like a blank sheet of paper…
