Sixty-six years ago the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (now known as NASA) created the largest closed-loop wind tunnel testing facility in the world to examine why so many of America’s military aircraft were icing up and crashing. In the decades that followed World War II, aircraft scientists, design engineers, and aircraft builders from all over the world used the building to test aircraft components to prevent icing at temperatures as low -25˚F.
Although NASA’s Icing Research Tunnel (IRT) remains the largest and busiest testing facility of its type, it remained largely unchanged over the years. Fast-forward to late 2011, when major changes in equipment and systems were completed enabling the facility to conduct tests at a jaw-clenching -40˚ F.