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Aircraft ice testing to resume at Marquette Sawyer Regional Airport

The U.S. Army Redstone Test Center is currently conducting icing testing using the new CH-47F with the Helicopter Icing Spray System (HISS) in Marquette until late April 2025.
Collin Magonigal, RTC Photographer
The U.S. Army Redstone Test Center is currently conducting icing testing using the new CH-47F with the Helicopter Icing Spray System (HISS) in Marquette until late April 2025.

MARQUETTE, MI— The Army will be ice testing aircraft around Marquette Sawyer Regional Airport over the next few months.

Since 2015, the U.S. Army Redstone Test Center has brought a Chinook helicopter equipped with an orange boom that sprays water to the U.P. The Helicopter Icing Spray System—or HISS—creates a controlled-cloud environment through which a test aircraft flies. The effects of ice accumulation and shedding are documented with onboard instrumentation and photography.

RTC has the only HISS aircraft in the world and leading experts in maintaining the aircraft and conducting icing testing.

Sawyer officials say the operation has positioned Marquette County as a key winter testing site for international aircraft manufacturers in conjunction with RTC. Aircraft companies from countries like South Korea and Italy, as well as various U.S. companies, have used the HISS system in the U.P. Officials say the operation contributes more than $2 million to the local economy.

Testing will be performed through the end of April.

Nicole was born near Detroit but has lived in the U.P. most of her life. She graduated from Marquette Senior High School and attended Michigan State and Northern Michigan Universities, graduating from NMU in 1993 with a degree in English.