# BOEING VERTOL MODEL 107 HELICOPTER ICING & WEATHER TESTS 30554b

This 1960s film, Operation Ice Cloud, produced by the Vertol Division of the Boeing Company, shows viewers how a testing rig, which creates an “ice cloud,” is used to create icy conditions for testing aircraft. The film features testing on Vertol’s Model 107 transport helicopter ( 00:51 )—also known as the Boeing Vertol CH-46 Sea Knight—as engineers subject the helicopter to two months of testing. Tests include deicing technology for helicopter blades, rotor deicing, and anti-icing of windshields and engine air inlets. Testing occurs at Uplands Airport, near Ottawa, Canada, which is home to the Royal Canadian Air Force Central Experimental and Proving Establishment ( 00:22 ), the test and evaluation center for military aircraft, and the National Aeronautical Establishment Flight Research Section ( 00:29 ), the aviation division of the National Research Council. The “spray rig” ( 00:42 ) creates a cloud of moisture that, in Canada’s sub-freezing temperatures, simulates icy conditions necessary to test helicopter ice protection systems ( 02:44 ). Engineers study how ice builds up on blades, looking at ice patterns on the blades ( 04:07 ), and test deicing technology—a fiberglass deicing blanket on the blade ( 04:14 ). An illustration demonstrates how the heating elements of the blanket work ( 04:46 ), allowing ice to build up to 3/16 inch, the ideal thickness to safely reach before triggering the deicing system. We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide…

- Kind: Film
- Genres: Industrial and advertising
- Archive: [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/30554bOperationIceCloud)
- Licence or status: none stated by the archive
- Who can watch: Tweens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/ia/30554bOperationIceCloud?play=1)