The result is a ‘one-stop shop’ for aircraft-
based research.
The fibreglass casting shell for one such
radome – which Dr Wolde refers to as ‘the
hot tub’ – was developed in collaboration
with Defence Research and Development
Canada, for the Canadian Department of
National Defence (DND) to test a UK-built
satellite terminal designed to send huge
amounts of data in the Arctic. Dr Wolde said:
“Being able to do the design, fabrication,
installation and flight testing in-house meant
the entire process took just two years from
idea to a working equipment package that
is now being implemented on over a dozen
DND military aircraft.”
Occasionally, risky research ideas
advocated by the NRC’s envelope-pushing
scientists clashed with the safety-first
consciousness of the research fleet’s pilots.
Kissmann recalled “You can imagine our
conversation when Mengistu walked into
the Flight Operations office and said, ‘We’re
looking at flying into a tropical thunderstorm
system with our 1957 Convair 580; what do
you think?’.” “I think the first time he said
this, I kicked him out of the office!”
After the initial shock wore off, Kissmann
and Dr Wolde worked together to establish
how such a mission could be (and eventually
was) flown safely. Dr Wolde remarked: “It’sa matter of balancing safety versus science
and having the trust on both sides to work
it out.”
Kris Ellis, a senior research officer,
said: “Our safety culture is strong at the
NRC. Everything we do here – including
cutting metal in fuselages to make way for
sensor equipment – is done so that it never
encroaches on safety.”VETERAN AIRCRAFT
The Harvard is a post-World War Two
version of the aircraft that trained so many
Allied pilots. Thanks to the modifications
made by the NRC, this model “is likely
the world’s most advanced Harvard,” said
Kissmann. It has an ADS-B (automatic
dependent surveillance-broadcast)
monitoring system that enables a back-seat
observer to watch this system’s performance
using an iPhone. The rear cockpit also has
an advanced instrumentation package that
can support modern avionics displays.
The NRC FRL uses the Harvard for
advanced pilot training, as well as to
test new equipment and applications in
high-g aerobatic environments; including
out-of-control recovery situations. The
council states the aircraft’s: “uniquedisplay capability allows prototyping and
assessment of novel and unique flight
display technologies to aircrew in a broad
range of flight conditions.” Kissmann
commented: “We have been using the
Harvard recently to test alternatives to 100LL
[100 low lead] fuels. We have instruments
on board that measure engine performance
when we switch from one tank of alternative
fuel to another, to see how each one
performs in actual flight.”
The organisation’s Convair 580 was
previously owned by the Thomas Road
Baptist Church, before being purchased
by the NRC in 1973. It is the workhorse
of the research fleet, capable of long-
distance operation carrying several racks
of instrumentation and up to a dozen
research crew. It is also a multi-purpose
flying laboratory that supports various
atmospheric studies, such as low-level smog
in urban areas, cloud chemistry and aircraft
icing. Its involvement in other projects
includes advanced navigation, spotlight
synthetic aperture radar and precision
aircraft positioning using differential global
positioning system (DGPS) techniques.
The NRC has also modified the aircraft to
support a range of tasks, such as measuring
external air quality, high bandwidth data
link communications, electro-optichttp://www.aviation-news.co.uk 65A Lockheed T-33 often chases other NRC
aircraft to measure wake turbulence. NRC64-68_nrc_canadaDC.mfDC.indd 65 03/07/2018 10:53