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The climatic laboratory reproduces virtually every type of weather possible ? sandstorms, blizzards, sleet, downpours of up to 25 inches per hour ? but its primary concern is excessive heat and cold that plague aircraft avionics and hydraulic systems.

Stoking its main chamber to a maximum 165 degrees, which takes about eight hours, McKinley crews literally put avionics equipment on an oven rack by adding powerful solar lights. Why such intensity? Because avionics gear already generates heat, it?s taxed even more in regions such as Southwest Asia, where temperatures inside closed cockpits can hit 190. It?s better to find problems at the lab than in battle.

As for low temperatures, they thicken hydraulic fluid, causing problems for flight controls, landing gear and bomb-bay mechanisms. Hence, in 20 hours lab workers turn Eglin?s most famous landmark into the world?s biggest deep freeze, replicating arctic conditions at minus 65 degrees.

?A lot of modern aircraft, such as the F-117, B-2 and F-22, have imbedded engines,? McKinley?s lab director noted. ?So we create icing clouds and then blow them over engine-running aircraft to probe internal anti-icing systems. If you don?t have any way of heating engines, ice chunks can be sucked down into them, resulting in severe damage.?

During these experiments, lab temperatures become so cold, ?it feels as if your fingernails will pop off,? said test advisor Roger Judy.

McKinley staffers primarily evaluate weapon systems during full-scale development, looking for significant glitches before mass production starts. Afterward corrections are made, followed by ?tests to the fixes.?


F-22 at 120 degrees F

Note the anchor chains. The engine exhausts are attached to ducts at the rear of the hangar.

An F-16 can be restrained and tested at full throttle with afterburners.