Minus forty weather suits helicopter testers

GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS

French pilots and engineers are flying the cold skies of Iqaluit this month to see if their sleek, state-of-the-art helicopter can handle Arctic weather.

Officials and technicians with Eurocopter, a French aerospace manufacturer, landed at the Iqaluit airport on Sunday, eager to haul their latest model of the helicopter into -40 C temperatures.

While plane watchers in Iqaluit buzzed about the thundering entrance of the Antonov 124-100 transport aircraft, the world’s largest transport plane, the team of 12 technicians and support staff had their eyes on the company’s newest helicopter prototype.

For the next three weeks, they will be testing their EC-225 helicopter, an aircraft with five blades that can carry more than 20 people. Past models tested in Iqaluit have been used in war, search and rescue, and most recently, distributing food and supplies in areas of Thailand ravaged by last month’s tsunami.

Richard Di Segni, a spokesperson for Eurocopter, described Iqaluit as a premiere testing ground for leading manufacturers that are looking to impress future clients.

Di Segni explained that a customer needs to know that their helicopter will work in both hot, sultry conditions, and the deep, dark cold.

“First we do the cold, then we do the hot,” Di Segni said of the testing process. “If a rich guy in Houston, Texas wants to go for a fishing trip in Alaska, he needs to know it can go to Alaska.”

Over the past decade, Iqaluit has developed a reputation with the world’s leading plane and helicopter companies as the best place to try out new equipment.

Iqaluit’s cold weather attracts international manufacturers like Airbus and Boeing, and military groups like the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The Canadian giant, Bombardier, also brings new models to Nunavut’s capital for testing.

Their visits are part of an international certification process that requires planes and helicopters to function properly between -40 C and +40 C. To get international approval for sale, the companies test their newly designed equipment at various altitudes. Iqaluit provides a chance to see if everything works at sea level.

After testing in Iqaluit, companies usually go to a tropical country, like Ecuador, to test higher altitudes and temperatures.

Di Segni said European companies prefer Iqaluit, instead of northern airports in the Scandinavian countries. There, temperatures often reach the low end of the thermometer, but Iqaluit is known to be consistently cold.

“That way we don’t have to worry about losing a winter [of testing],” Di Segni said.

While in Iqaluit, Eurocopter technicians will check several features of their new aircraft. They include the engine, digital screens, propeller blades and autopilot computers.

Company officials wouldn’t comment on how much they spend on the research and development of specific new aircrafts, but they estimated each helicopter is worth “tens of millions of dollars.”

These major investments eventually spill over to the local economy where the testing is done, according to John Graham, Iqaluit’s airport manager.

Graham points out that every testing team uses hotel, restaurant and other services while visiting the community. He declined to comment on how much the companies pay for airport services.

“There’s got to have been tremendous economic spin-offs,” Graham said. “It certainly puts the airport’s name on the international map.”

Besides cold weather testing, Iqaluit’s airport has taken on several international roles. In 1942, the U.S. built an airport base to serve as a stopover spot for fighter planes on their way to war in Europe. It was also considered an advance warning site.

During the Cold War, U.S. forces used Iqaluit for refueling and replenishing supplies, besides setting up a distant early warning line radar site.