Nearly every new US military aircraft has to spend time in the McKinley Climatic Laboratory at Eglin AFB, Florida. This test center, conceived during World War II, completed in 1947, and extensively renovated fifty years later, can recreate just about every weather condition on Earth. Here, one of the US Navy’s Lockheed P-3A Orion maritime patrol aircraft goes through extreme cold weather testing in the lab’s main chamber, which is essentially a giant thermos bottle. This photo was taken circa 1963.

Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company – Palmdale, CA
P-3 Orion at Eglin AFB for Climatic Testing
Lockheed Martin Photo