Ubiq Aerospace and Boeing announced a partnership to build a new icing wind tunnel (IWT) in Trondheim, Norway. The facility will provide advanced testing and validation capabilities for drones, subsystems, and sensors in controlled icing and cold-weather environments. It will also offer researchers opportunities to study icing and improve aerospace safety in cold-weather operations.

The IWT is phase one of Ubiq’s Foundry initiative, a long-term plan to establish Trondheim as a hub for R&D, large-scale manufacturing, and testing infrastructure. Foundry is designed to shorten the path from concept to operational capability and help allied nations deploy mission-critical technologies faster.

“This tunnel will significantly strengthen Ubiq’s development capacity and provide allied partners with a world-class test facility,” says Kim Lynge Sørensen, CEO at Ubiq Aerospace. “It also marks the first step of Foundry, where infrastructure, prototyping, and production come together to close the gap between invention and deployment at scale.”

Boeing will apply its experience in aerospace engineering and testing to ensure the IWT meets the highest performance and safety standards. “The Ubiq icing wind tunnel will deliver unique test and validation capability for the next generation of aircraft and autonomous systems,” says Phil Schneider, director of European international strategic partnerships at Boeing.

Construction is expected to begin later this year, with operations starting in Q3 2027.