HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE – As Airmen from the New York National Guard’s 109th Airlift Wing scoured the Arctic Ocean’s Beaufort Sea looking for a place to land a LC-130 Hercules earlier this spring, they finally came to a conclusion: the sea ice just wasn’t thick enough to support the 61-ton, four-engine behemoth.
But demonstrating an icefield landing was a keystone event of the multi-nation, Canadian-led Operation Nanook-Nunalivut, so the 109th didn’t want to just cancel the mission. Instead, the group sought advice from a long-time collaborator and expert in Arctic airfields – the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) in Hanover, N.H.
When Research Civil Engineer TJ Melendy took the call, he asked “what about freshwater ice?”
That simple question kicked off a three-week process of research, testing and runway preparation that culminated in an aviation first and a new standard for ice landings that dramatically expands landing site options for military operations in cold regions.
Re-evaluating the 55-inch standard
CRREL, a U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center laboratory specializing in the challenges of the Earth’s coldest regions, has performed decades of research and fieldwork establishing that 55 inches of ice is the thickness required to land an LC-130 (a ski-equipped version of the C-130) for both saltwater ice and freshwater ice.
But researchers, including Melendy, have long thought that a landing on freshwater ice could be done on much less thick of ice. That’s because saltwater ice and freshwater ice have different properties.
“Sea ice is much easier to determine if it’s safe or not,” said Melendy. “It really is just dependent on ice thickness, and you can measure that with a simple tool.”
With freshwater ice, a lot more goes into determining if it’s safe enough to land a plane on.
“Does the ice have cracks? What direction do they run in? How deep are the cracks? How wide? Are they wet or dry at the bottom?” said Melendy.
And that is all before things like the size of the plane, its load, unfrozen water depth, how long the plane is going to sit on the ice, and at what speed it will land, taxi, and takeoff at and a multitude of other factors have all been taken into account.
“We even need to ask the question of ‘what is the situation?’” said Melendy. “It is an emergency situation, or is it a situation where it is a regular operation?”
“I decided we could do it.”
With Melendy’s freshwater suggestion in mind, the 109th began looking for a suitable locale. They ultimately settled on Parsons Lake, a nearly 15,000-acre body of freshwater in the Inuvik Region of Canada’s Northwest Territories that lies on the 68th parallel, well above the Arctic Circle.
Members of the 109th then set up camp on the lake and spent three weeks on the ice testing its depth, identifying and measuring cracks, and constantly reporting their findings back to Melendy and his team back in Hanover.
The average ice depth was determined to be 39.5 inches, well below the 55-inch standard. But after taking all of the meticulously compiled factors into consideration, Melendy gave the 109th the green light to attempt an LC-130 landing.
“I decided we could do it,” he said.
And he was right.
Viewing the landing in Hanover from a live feed via Facetime, Melendy watched nervously as the LC-130 appeared over the horizon and lumbered toward the landing area.
Much to Melendy’s joy and relief the plane landed, taxied and ultimately spent four hours on the ice before taking off again.
And with that, the 109th Airlift Wing had landed an LC-130 on freshwater ice for the first time ever – setting a new standard.
Decades of collaboration leads to trust
According to Dr. Orian Welling, chief of CRREL’s Research and Engineering Division, the ability to suggest that a freshwater landing on less ice than the 55-inch standard is a testament to the relationship – and trust – that CRREL has built with the Air Force over decades of collaboration on Arctic airfields.
“It's more than just understanding that the science and engineering is there, it's also the relationships we have with the military,” he said.
Welling added that operating beyond standard regulations comes with risk, including potential loss of life and millions of dollars in equipment. With that in mind, CRREL must rely on decades of data, expertise and rigorous analysis to ensure safety and mission success.
“They are trusting us to do this, which really goes to show how much respect CRREL has in this field and how good our research has been in the past and how much we've been able to aid the military,” said Welling. “It's so much more than just the research.”
A new standard, more landing sites
The successful landing on Parsons Lake isn’t just a technical achievement; it's a game-changer.
In an Air Force press release touting the groundbreaking effort, Lt. Col. Matthew Sala, the 109th deployed commander, suggested that landing LC-130s on freshwater ice opens up significant tactical and strategic opportunities in remote and Arctic regions, such as rapid deployment of personnel, equipment, and supplies to critical locations and overall quicker response times for Arctic operations.
“We are excited to see what the future holds for the LC-130 Hercules and 109th Airlift Wing as we continue to evolve our capabilities in the Arctic,” said Sala.
For Melendy’s part, he estimates that the successful landing on an LC-130 on less than 55-inches of freshwater ice will significantly expand the number of potential landing areas on cold regions.
“We can easily say 15 percent more,” he said. “But hopefully we can get that up to 20 to 25% more depending on weather conditions.”