WASHINGTON — Inside the McKinley Climatic Laboratory at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, the Air Force subjects aircraft and other systems to probably the most extreme weather conditions the planet can dish out.
Antarctic temperatures. Blistering desert heat. Simulated winds battering planes with sand, dust, freezing rain, salt spray and snow, all to ensure that they won’t fail when conditions get rough.
And on Dec. 15, certainly one of the Air Force’s newest jet trainers arrived on the McKinley lab to be put to the test.
The T-7A Red Hawk is the following jet the Air Force plans to make use of to coach recent pilots how you can fly advanced fighters and bombers, and it’s designed to emulate fifth-generation jets equivalent to the F-22 Raptor and F-35.
The service plans to purchase a fleet of 351 Boeing-made T-7s to switch its older 504 T-38 Talon trainers, which will likely be retired. The Air Force’s first T-7 in November flew to Edwards Air Force Base in California for further flight testing.
The service said Dec. 20 it plans to subject this T-7 now on the McKinley lab, which bears a special tail number than the one which flew to Edwards, to sustained temperatures starting from -25 degrees to 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Those tests are called cold soaking and solar loading, and testers will then see how well the T-7′s propulsion, hydraulic, fuel, electrical, secondary power, environmental control and other systems delay under the punishing conditions.
“The Red Hawk must withstand a variety of environments from sitting on the bottom within the Texas heat to flying at altitude,” Troy Hoeger, the T-7′s chief developmental tester on the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, said within the statement. “The climatic lab helps us do that in a deliberate and methodical way and can give us confidence that our recent aircraft meets requirements.”
The Air Force and Boeing said earlier this 12 months the climate testing would likely last about six weeks.
The military began running tests on the McKinley lab in 1947 to ensure that its vehicles and equipment could survive anywhere on the globe. It has been upgraded and expanded several times over the many years, and now has five chambers and other systems. Aircraft, weapons and equipment tested there have included the World War II-era B-29 Superfortress, P-51 Mustang, and P-47 Thunderbolt, in addition to tanks, missile launchers, shelters, jet engines, vehicles and tires.
Its most important chamber — the most important environmental chamber on the planet — is an insulated, 70-foot-high hangar large enough to check entire aircraft, weapons, and other support systems, in response to an Air Force fact sheet. The most important chamber is even large enough to check a large C-5M Super Galaxy, although a 2007 release on a C-5 test showed it was a decent fit.
That chamber’s two air makeup unit systems — essentially a number of the most intense HVAC systems on the planet — produce temperatures from -65 degrees to 165 degrees. The South Pole often records temperatures of -76 degrees in wintertime, in response to the US Antarctic Program.
And it might produce multiple humidity conditions, and simulate the pounding of solar radiation an aircraft might absorb while parked long periods of time under the Texas sun.
Other chambers at McKinley can create salt fog to quickly simulate the highly corrosive conditions aircraft might encounter over years of exposure in coastal areas, or bombard an aircraft with wind, rain, or simulated sand and mud storms like they may encounter within the Middle East.
Yet one more chamber can create a wide range of pressures an aircraft might face at as much as 80,000 feet, and test how an aircraft might handle rapid decompression.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.