Man-Made Weather

Snow will fall in Florida this summer. But the snow will be indoors--in the Army Air Forces' "Climatic Hangar." This $6,000,000 project, abuilding at Eglin Field Proving Ground since October 1944, and scheduled for completion in July, is far & away the most ambitious attempt yet made to synthesize the vagaries of nature. Its purpose: to test planes, equipment and men under every climatic condition.

Most tests will be made in a cavernous, windowless, heavily insulated hangar large enough to hold three 6-293. Floor area: 250 by 200 feet--just slightly smaller than Manhattan's Madison Square Garden. From a normal temperature of 80DEG F. the hangar can be cooled to --50DEG in 48 hours, or warmed from 25DEG to 165DEG in 16 hours. Wind machines whip up 100-mile-an-hour storms, complete with rain, snow or hail.

With the use of special equipment an airplane will be able to do almost anything in the hangar except fly. Guns up to 75 mm. can be fired from the planes directly on to a firing range, dummy bombs dropped into pits sunk into the hangar floor. Take-offs and landings will be simulated, and motor vehicles road-tested.

Added attractions:

P: An engine test room with the full temperature range of the main hangar, plus blowers for simulating sand and dust storms.

P: An "all-weather" room for testing personnel and equipment under extreme temperatures, torrential rain (up to 15 inches an hour) and high winds or, through sun lamps, desert heat.

P: A "strato-chamber" for physiological tests under pressures equivalent to altitudes up to 80.000 feet. (Temperature in the chamber can be dropped as low as --94DEG:)

P: A jungle room, damp and hot, where test materials can be infected with fungi and mold.

P: "tropic-marine" room permeated with salt spray.

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