Turning a cold climate into cold cash: Fairbanks is doing research that is leading the way to economic benefit from its Arctic environment.

• Author: Ricketts, Ron

In Fairbanks, severe cold-climate temperature is just another vehicle for more economic development. The Fairbanks Economic Development Corp. has ramped up its recruitment of severe-climate vehicle testing teams. FEDC discovered long ago that one of the community's strengths and assets is, in fact, Arctic winters. FEDC knows a thing or two about cold-climate vehicle evaluation and has been promoting the region's security, secrecy and "perfect" weather conditions for years.

"Most people wouldn't consider reliably cold-winter weather a strength," says Charlie Walker, FEDC's president & CEO. "But to severe climate vehicle testing teams, Fairbanks is a perfect location because it offers 24-hour, high-speed secure data links to home-base engineering, excellent accommodations, easy transport access, and adequate security and secrecy. And manufacturers can do every test the way they want to--customers dictate their demands here."

Fairbanks has a long history as a venue for cold-climate testing.

Back in the '60s, Fairbanks International Airport was the cold-weather test location for the Anglo/French Supersonic Transport. Many local old-timers still remember the aircraft's pointy nose sticking out of the airfield's then-largest hangar. During World War II, nearby Ladd Army Air Field (now Fort Wainwright) was the military's leading cold-weather test center for numerous U.S. aircraft, such as the B-17 Super Fortress, the B-24 Liberator, the P-51 Mustang and the P-38 Lightning.

A resurgence of aerospace cold-weather testing activity started in Fairbanks with a Boeing 777 study for customer United Airlines in 1991. Boeing needed to prove to them that the auxiliary power unit (APU) for the 777 could function in an Alaska winter. AlliedSignal Aerospace's Arizona based Garrett Auxiliary Power Division, Boeing's supplier of the 777 APU, rose to the challenge and constructed a test stand at Fairbanks International for a 450 cold soak-and-start test program of their model 331-500 APU. Since the 777 APU program, AlliedSignal has followed up with numerous other test projects in Fairbanks.

AlliedSignal's Fairbanks activity opened the possibilities for further aerospace testing," recalled Dave Carlstrom, FEDC's director of airport marketing. "Every airframe, power plant and APU manufacturer has a need for developmental and certification-related, cold-soak testing. Cold chambers--essentially huge, in some cases, hangar-sized, deep-freeze iceboxes--are a viable but...