Celebrating 80 Years of the Icing Research Tunnel
The Icing Research Tunnel (IRT) at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland has been essential in helping NASA and industry study how ice affects aircraft and test ice protection systems for decades.
History
NASA Tunnel Generates Decades of Icy Aircraft Safety Data
On Sept. 13, 1944, researchers subjected a Bell P-39L Airacobra to frigid temperatures and a freezing water spray in the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA)’s new Icing Research Tunnel (IRT) to study inflight ice buildup. Since that first run at the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory (now NASA’s Glenn Research Center), the facility has operated on a regular basis for 80 years and remains the oldest and one of the largest icing tunnels in the world.
Explore the IRT's History about NASA Tunnel Generates Decades of Icy Aircraft Safety Data
Go Behind the Scenes
Get an inside look at the Icing Research Tunnel in this virtual tour.
Explore the Facility about Go Behind the ScenesMeet a Few People of the IRT
Emily Timko
Timko, an icing cloud calibration engineer at the IRT, has the power to control the temperature, form wispy clouds, create ice crystals, and produce powerful gusts of wind.
Paul von Hardenberg
Everyone assumes that engineers were naturally gifted at math and science in school. Not necessarily says von Hardenberg, an icing research engineer.
Gretchen Morales-Valle
Morales-Valle's work in the IRT helps keep you safe when you fly. Gretchen’s advice for youth—be yourself. You don’t need to fit into a certain mold to be an engineer.
Looking Back in Time
Building Beginnings
The NACA decided to build its new icing tunnel next to the lab’s Altitude Wind Tunnel to take advantage of its powerful cooling equipment and unprecedented refrigeration system. The system, which can reduce air temperature to around–30 degrees Fahrenheit, produces realistic and repeatable icing conditions using a spray nozzle system that creates small, very cold droplets and a drive fan that generates airspeeds up to 374 miles per hour.
Test 1, Run 1
On Sept. 13, 1944, researchers subjected a Bell P-39L Airacobra to frigid temperatures and a freezing water spray in the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA)’s new Icing Research Tunnel (IRT) to study inflight ice buildup. Since that first run at the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory (now NASA’s Glenn Research Center) in Cleveland, the facility has operated on a regular basis for 80 years and remains the oldest and one of the largest icing tunnels in the world.
Spray It ‘Til You Make It
Despite early successes, NACA engineers struggled to improve the facility’s droplet spray system because of a lack of small nozzles able to produce sufficiently small droplets. After years of dogged trial and error, the breakthrough came in 1950 with an 80-nozzle system that produced the uniform microscopic droplets needed to properly simulate a natural icing cloud.
Continuing the Legacy
The IRT was one of the busiest facilities at the center in the 2000s and continues to maintain a steady test schedule today, investigating icing on turbofan engines and propellers, refining testing of rotating models, validating 3D models, and much more. The IRT has been used to develop nearly every modern ice protection system, provided key icing environment data to regulatory agencies, and validated leading ice prediction software. After 80 years, it remains a critical tool for sustaining NASA’s leadership in the icing field.
