Aircraft Ice Protection

The Aircraft Ice Protection program focuses on two main areas: devel­opment of remote sensing technologies to measure nearby icing con­ditions, improve current forecast capabilities, and develop systems to transfer and display that information to flight crews, flight controllers, and dispatchers; and development of systems to monitor and assess aircraft performance, notify the cockpit crew about the state of the
aircraft, and/or automatically alter the aircraft controlling systems to prevent stall or loss of control in an icing environment. Keeping those two focus areas in mind, the Aircraft Ice Protection program is subdi­vided to work on these three goals:

• Provide flight crews with real-time icing weather infor­mation so they can avoid the hazard in the first place or find the quickest way out.[1265]

• Improve the ability of an aircraft to operate safely in icing conditions.[1266]

• Improve icing simulation capabilities by develop­ing better instrumentation and measurement tech­niques to characterize atmospheric icing conditions, which also will provide icing weather validation data­bases, and increase basic knowledge of icing physics.[1267]

In terms of remote sensing, the top level goals of this activity are to develop and field-test two forms of remote sensing system technologies that can reduce the exposure of aircraft to in-flight icing hazards. The first technology would be ground based and provide coverage in
a limited terminal area to protect all vehicles. The second technology would be airborne and provide unrestricted flightpath coverage for a commuter class aircraft. In most cases the icing hazard to aircraft is minimized with either de-icing or anti-icing procedures, or by avoid­ing any known icing or possible icing areas altogether. However, being able to avoid the icing hazard depends much on the quality and timing of the latest observed and forecast weather conditions. And once stuck in a severe icing hazard zone, the pilot must have enough information to know how to get out of the area before the aircraft’s ice protection systems are overwhelmed. One way to address these problem areas is to remotely detect icing potential and present the information to the pilot in a clear, easily understood manner. Such systems would allow the pilot to avoid icing conditions and also allow rapid escape from icing if severe conditions were encountered.[1268]