In this historical photo from the U.S. space agency, ice formations on the propeller and fuselage surfaces of a test unit installed in March of 1945 in the Icing Research Tunnel at the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, Cleveland, Ohio, now known as John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field, show what may happen to an airplane in flight under certain atmospheric conditions.
Ice degrades the performance of an aircraft in flight and can cause loss of control.
The National Advisory Committe on Aeronautics (NACA) was a precursor to NASA. NACA was created by Congress in 1915.
Each weekday, SPACE.com looks back at the history of spaceflight through photos (archive).
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