1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,300 Hello everyone, I'm Steele McGonigal. 2 00:00:05,300 --> 00:00:09,040 And I'm Kara O'Brien, and welcome to Destination Tomorrow. 3 00:00:09,040 --> 00:00:13,520 This program will uncover how past, present, and future research is creating today's knowledge 4 00:00:13,520 --> 00:00:16,880 to answer the questions and solve the challenges of tomorrow. 5 00:00:16,880 --> 00:00:21,520 We begin with an issue that affects all aircraft that fly in our atmosphere. 6 00:00:21,520 --> 00:00:25,640 The formation of ice on airplanes is not only an issue on the runway during cold weather, 7 00:00:25,640 --> 00:00:28,320 but can form on airplanes in flight. 8 00:00:28,320 --> 00:00:31,880 This problem can be a dangerous situation for any piloted aircraft. 9 00:00:31,880 --> 00:00:36,920 Fortunately, NASA has been conducting research on icing with a unique wind tunnel facility 10 00:00:36,920 --> 00:00:40,080 that creates icing conditions on aircraft. 11 00:00:40,080 --> 00:00:44,960 Jennifer Pulley takes Destination Tomorrow behind the scenes to see how this icing research 12 00:00:44,960 --> 00:00:48,840 tunnel is helping engineers combat icing conditions on aircraft. 13 00:00:48,840 --> 00:00:57,280 Thanks for the ice. 14 00:00:57,280 --> 00:01:04,440 You know, there's nothing like a beverage chilled with ice during a long flight. 15 00:01:04,440 --> 00:01:07,880 Inside an airplane, ice is something passengers desire. 16 00:01:07,880 --> 00:01:13,680 However, outside an airplane, ice can be dangerous, especially if it forms on the wings or engines. 17 00:01:13,680 --> 00:01:18,800 I had the opportunity to speak with Judy Foss-Vanzanti at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, 18 00:01:18,800 --> 00:01:19,800 Ohio. 19 00:01:19,800 --> 00:01:25,160 She's researching the effects of icing on aircraft at a unique facility called the Icing 20 00:01:25,160 --> 00:01:26,760 Research Tunnel. 21 00:01:26,760 --> 00:01:31,160 Researchers at this facility study the formation of ice on the exterior of aircraft. 22 00:01:31,160 --> 00:01:35,720 So while flying, the only ice you'll need to worry about is the ice inside your cup. 23 00:01:35,720 --> 00:01:39,520 Well, I'm standing right here in the Icing Research Tunnel. 24 00:01:39,520 --> 00:01:43,960 Right here, we create on Earth what it's like for an airplane to fly through an icing cloud 25 00:01:43,960 --> 00:01:44,960 up there. 26 00:01:44,960 --> 00:01:47,880 To do that, we've got to make it windy, cold, and wet. 27 00:01:47,960 --> 00:01:50,640 Now, right now, I'm standing in front of the fan. 28 00:01:50,640 --> 00:01:54,360 We have the fan to create the wind, and in the test section, which is a much smaller 29 00:01:54,360 --> 00:01:58,320 cross-sectional area, we can get winds up to 400 miles per hour. 30 00:01:58,320 --> 00:02:02,800 So that's about as fast as a plane might fly through in an icing environment. 31 00:02:02,800 --> 00:02:08,320 We create the cold with our heat exchanger, 1,700 ton, it can cool 500 homes. 32 00:02:08,320 --> 00:02:09,320 That's how big it is. 33 00:02:09,320 --> 00:02:15,080 We can get from zero Celsius down to about minus 20, which is where the icing might occur 34 00:02:15,080 --> 00:02:16,080 in nature. 35 00:02:16,280 --> 00:02:19,280 And we have spray bars. 36 00:02:19,280 --> 00:02:21,560 The spray bars is what makes the icing tunnel. 37 00:02:21,560 --> 00:02:22,960 We create the rain. 38 00:02:22,960 --> 00:02:26,200 We create a mist that the airplane would fly through. 39 00:02:26,200 --> 00:02:30,820 Now, the thing about the spray bars is the researchers need to control both how much 40 00:02:30,820 --> 00:02:37,000 water is in the cloud, the liquid water content, we call it, and how big the drop size is. 41 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:40,360 And we have spray bars specially designed to create those conditions. 42 00:02:40,360 --> 00:02:44,400 So in our test section, we create what it's like for an airplane to fly through an icing 43 00:02:44,400 --> 00:02:45,400 cloud. 44 00:02:45,400 --> 00:02:48,880 So why did NASA build an icing research tunnel? 45 00:02:48,880 --> 00:02:55,600 As it turns out, during World War II, the Allies lost more aircraft to icing than enemy 46 00:02:55,600 --> 00:02:56,600 fires. 47 00:02:56,600 --> 00:02:58,960 They were trying to fly supplies over the Himalayas. 48 00:02:58,960 --> 00:03:03,760 So the Air Corps turned to NACA, that's NASA's predecessor, and asked them to build an icing 49 00:03:03,760 --> 00:03:07,960 research tunnel so we could understand what was going on and how to fix the problem. 50 00:03:07,960 --> 00:03:11,700 So what do you test in the icing research tunnel, or the IRT? 51 00:03:11,700 --> 00:03:14,640 What we test in the IRT is what makes sense to test. 52 00:03:14,880 --> 00:03:18,840 Now, if you think about it, if you're in an airplane flying through an icing cloud, what 53 00:03:18,840 --> 00:03:21,560 surfaces are most critical to keep ice free? 54 00:03:21,560 --> 00:03:25,680 Well, it's the wings, which provide the lift, get you off the ground, and it's the engine 55 00:03:25,680 --> 00:03:28,320 inlet, which provides the forward thrust. 56 00:03:28,320 --> 00:03:33,520 So we typically can test just those components, just the wing or the engine inlet. 57 00:03:33,520 --> 00:03:37,400 So what happens when ice forms on an airplane's wing? 58 00:03:37,400 --> 00:03:43,760 Well, ice can disrupt the airflow over a wing and will eventually cause the airflow to separate. 59 00:03:43,760 --> 00:03:49,200 This separation of airflow creates more drag and less lift. 60 00:03:49,200 --> 00:03:54,480 If ice continues to form, the wing will no longer produce the appropriate amount of lift 61 00:03:54,480 --> 00:03:57,240 needed to keep the airplane in flight. 62 00:03:57,240 --> 00:04:03,900 In some cases, ice creates airflow separation over movable parts, like an aileron. 63 00:04:03,900 --> 00:04:09,640 This could create handling or control problems, and the plane could suddenly roll. 64 00:04:09,640 --> 00:04:13,920 As the wing is flying through the air, the ice only accumulates around the leading edge. 65 00:04:13,920 --> 00:04:18,320 So that's why ice protection systems only wrap around the first part, the front part 66 00:04:18,320 --> 00:04:20,320 of the wing. 67 00:04:20,320 --> 00:04:24,640 The biggest factor in how the ice grows is temperature. 68 00:04:24,640 --> 00:04:28,680 So if it's really cold, the water droplet comes in, hits the front part of the wing, 69 00:04:28,680 --> 00:04:33,400 and freezes on impact, and you get this nice, pointy, rhyme shape. 70 00:04:33,400 --> 00:04:37,880 The more dangerous ice comes during warmer conditions, those closer to freezing, where 71 00:04:37,880 --> 00:04:42,160 the water comes in, hits the leading edge, and actually runs back a little bit. 72 00:04:42,160 --> 00:04:46,320 If that happens, the next droplet might come and see that droplet that is frozen and start 73 00:04:46,320 --> 00:04:47,320 to grow. 74 00:04:47,320 --> 00:04:50,280 So you might get these ram's horns that grow upstream. 75 00:04:50,280 --> 00:04:55,480 Now that significantly disrupts your airflow, and that is not, that's way off design, and 76 00:04:55,480 --> 00:04:56,480 that's very bad. 77 00:04:56,480 --> 00:04:59,440 Judy, tell me a little bit more about the icing protection system. 78 00:04:59,440 --> 00:05:01,080 Do all planes have it? 79 00:05:01,080 --> 00:05:05,360 There's what we call an anti-ice system, where you don't allow the ice to grow at all. 80 00:05:05,600 --> 00:05:10,400 If you've got a very hot leading edge, you see that in jets, and there's a de-icing system 81 00:05:10,400 --> 00:05:15,160 which has pneumatic boots that the boots will wrap around that leading edge, they'll inflate 82 00:05:15,160 --> 00:05:19,320 and pop the ice off, so you'll let the ice grow, and then you've got to get it off. 83 00:05:19,320 --> 00:05:23,880 The pneumatic boots are typically what you see with turboprop aircraft. 84 00:05:23,880 --> 00:05:27,960 Does icing affect planes in, say, a warm climate? 85 00:05:27,960 --> 00:05:29,760 Icing occurs everywhere. 86 00:05:29,760 --> 00:05:31,720 You've got to be aware of it. 87 00:05:31,720 --> 00:05:36,600 I've got a pilot friend who told me the worst icing he encountered was flying from Florida 88 00:05:36,600 --> 00:05:41,680 to the Caribbean in July at 16,000 feet, the worst icing he ever saw. 89 00:05:41,680 --> 00:05:44,480 But icing really can occur anywhere and anytime. 90 00:05:44,480 --> 00:05:49,600 One of the things we do here at NASA is to have better designs, so maybe a system that 91 00:05:49,600 --> 00:05:54,280 would automatically turn on the ice protection system if a sensor goes out. 92 00:05:54,280 --> 00:06:00,200 The short-term solution is to train the pilots and educate them about how to detect icing, 93 00:06:00,200 --> 00:06:05,800 how to be aware of it, train them how to get out of the icing environment if and when they need to. 94 00:06:05,800 --> 00:06:08,960 Ideally, icing is a non-issue in the future. 95 00:06:08,960 --> 00:06:10,920 We're working to get there. 96 00:06:10,920 --> 00:06:16,080 In 1987, the Icing Research Tunnel was designated an International Historical Mechanical Engineering 97 00:06:16,080 --> 00:06:20,000 Landmark for its leading role in making aviation safer for everyone. 98 00:06:20,000 --> 00:06:23,600 Coming up, we'll see how a new dental probe designed by NASA will make going 99 00:06:23,600 --> 00:06:25,960 to the dentist a little easier. 100 00:06:26,080 --> 00:06:30,880 But first, did you know that during World War II, the Allies lost nearly 1,000 planes 101 00:06:30,880 --> 00:06:33,960 over the Himalayan Mountains due to icing? 102 00:06:33,960 --> 00:06:37,400 Flight conditions here were so treacherous that pilots called this dangerous route the 103 00:06:37,400 --> 00:06:39,600 Hump or the Aluminum Trail.