A local company is making its own contribution to global research in the Arctic Circle.

Lake Central Air Services, experts in aircraft modifications, has been in business since 1964 and has never acquired a job like this before.

Most companies would envy them for the commercial opportunities, but that pales in comparison to the overall environmental significance of their involvement.

“When we got the job and were in my boss’s office we kind of grinned at each other and thought, ‘how the hell are we going to pull this off,” said Lake Central Air Services director of maintenance Jim Hodgson.

Based at Muskoka Airport in Gravenhurst, the company was hired by Germany’s Alfred Wegner Institute (AWI) last year to make necessary modifications to a converted DC3 for the purpose of being a mobile science lab in the polar regions.

There are no less than 29 modifications applied, with possibly more to come, for the addition of scientific research equipment for an airborne atmospheric measurements expedition dubbed MELTEX (Impact of melt ponds on energy and momentum fluxes between atmosphere and sea), which takes place this coming year in Antarctica, and other polar regions in the near future.

“Most of the geophysical work we do is for people making money, looking for minerals,” said Hodgson. “Being involved with AWI is more on the environmental end, which should concern everybody. That part of it I find exciting.”

He added, “It’s been interesting because it’s not just geophysical, but it’s environmental as well, so there was a whole bunch of new equipment that I wasn’t even aware existed until we got involved with it. They basically showed us what they wanted.”

MELTEX is one component to the European Union-funded, two-year initiative called DAMOCLES (Developing Arctic Modeling and Observing Capabilities for Long-term Environmental Studies – Integrated Project). There will be close co-operation with Environment Canada during the research.

This is “International Polar Year” and it marks a significant global effort to study both polar regions, researching and collecting information to understand how it affects other areas of the world. This will also enable a better public awareness.

The ultimate aim of the research for the six AWI members who will be travelling to the polar region is to gather information to address the question of whether the “Arctic perennial sea ice” will disappear in a few decades and how it will affect the environment and human activity, both regionally and globally. The gathered information will also assist scientists to formulate climate and weather predication models.

The plane arrived in Muskoka from Germany earlier this year and has had additions such as the nose boom, tail boom, radiation sensors, laser altimeter system integration and a sun spectrophotometer.

Hodgson’s team worked 16-hour days during that period to get the project near completion and ready for the Germans to go later this year.

The company had two or three employees dedicated solely to the project since they received the plane and, when needed, used the entire staff.

The plane will be the team’s mobile science lab and is expected to leave Muskoka and fly to Inuvik, the institute’s base of operations in the north.

The Polar 5, a DC3 originally, was modified by Basler Turbo Conversions, LLC, which had an existing relationship with Lake Central Air Services, with turbine engines instead of the original piston engines for better performance. It was renamed the BT-67.

This aircraft has twice the flight distance capability at 2,900 kilometres, more room for additional measuring equipment, and twice the cargo capabilities than the original. It is expected to require less maintenance and be able to operate for 800 hours per year.

“It’s a unique airplane to start building (modifications) around. It’s just kind of nostalgic to be able do these modern-day scientific probes and experiments on such a versatile old airplane,” said Hodgson.

The DC3, otherwise known as the Douglas DC3, was used as a transport plane in the 1930s and 1940s.

The plane is expected to assume other modifications after this expedition and will be in and out of the hangar in Muskoka for two or three years for two months at a time.

Due to damage suffered during a flight in January 2005, the Polar 4 was decommissioned and was temporarily replaced by Polar 2.

The Polar 5 will be added to the institute’s fleet of planes.