TO CHECK whether jet engines can survive a bird strike, manufacturers famously fire oven-ready chickens into them. But it doesn't end there: aircraft also have to be able to cope with the freezing conditions that can hit at any stage of a flight. And that's where this massive wind tunnel in Winnipeg, Canada, comes in.
Here, General Electric's aviation division blows ice-laden, frigid gales through its engines to make sure they can weather ice, hail and snow. The 6.4-metre-wide aperture to the right of the image contains seven high-powered fans that blast the engine on the left with winds reaching 105 kilometres per hour. Then an array of 125 adjustable nozzles – operated from the control station, pictured below – sprays micrometre-sized water droplets into the gale to create the kind of freezing ice, hail and snow cloud that planes will habitually meet on their journeys. The outdoor wind tunnel has been sited in Winnipeg because the temperature there is guaranteed to be below 0 °C on at least 50 days each year.
And when it warms up? It's back to the oven-ready chickens.
This article appeared in print under the headline "Ice station Winnipeg"
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