This 1960s film, Operation Ice Cloud, produced by the Vertol Division of the Boeing Company, shows viewers how a testing rig, which creates an “ice cloud,” is used to create icy conditions for testing aircraft. The film features testing on Vertol’s Model 107 transport helicopter (00:51)—also known as the Boeing Vertol CH-46 Sea Knight—as engineers subject the helicopter to two months of testing. Tests include deicing technology for helicopter blades, rotor deicing, and anti-icing of windshields and engine air inlets. Testing occurs at Uplands Airport, near Ottawa, Canada, which is home to the Royal Canadian Air Force Central Experimental and Proving Establishment (00:22), the test and evaluation center for military aircraft, and the National Aeronautical Establishment Flight Research Section (00:29), the aviation division of the National Research Council. The “spray rig” (00:42) creates a cloud of moisture that, in Canada’s sub-freezing temperatures, simulates icy conditions necessary to test helicopter ice protection systems (02:44). Engineers study how ice builds up on blades, looking at ice patterns on the blades (04:07), and test deicing technology—a fiberglass deicing blanket on the blade (04:14). An illustration demonstrates how the heating elements of the blanket work (04:46), allowing ice to build up to 3/16 inch, the ideal thickness to safely reach before triggering the deicing system.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
