Ice protection system
system to limit ice on aircraft surfaces
In aeronautics, ice protection systems keep atmospheric moisture from accumulating on aircraft surfaces, such as wings, propellers, rotor blades, engine intakes, and environmental control intakes. Ice buildup can change the shape of airfoils and flight control surfaces, degrading control and handling characteristics as well as performance. An anti-icing, de-icing, or ice protection system either prevents formation of ice, or enables the aircraft to shed the ice before it becomes dangerous.
Effects of icing
Aircraft icing increases weight and drag, decreases lift, and can decrease thrust. Ice reduces engine power by blocking air intakes. When ice builds up by freezing upon impact or freezing as runoff, it changes the aerodynamics of the surface by modifying the shape and the smoothness of the surface which increases drag, and decreases wing lift or propeller thrust. Both a decrease in lift on the wing due to an altered airfoil shape, and the increase in weight from the ice load will usually result having to fly at a greater angle of attack to compensate for lost lift to maintain altitude. This increases fuel consumption and further reduces speed, making a stall more likely to occur, causing the aircraft to lose altitude.
Ice accumulates on helicopter rotor blades and aircraft propellers causing weight and aerodynamic imbalances that are amplified due to their rotation.
Anti-ice systems installed on jet engines or turboprops help prevent airflow problems and avert the risk of serious internal engine damage from ingested ice.
“Ice protection system” enters the record as system to limit ice on aircraft surfaces. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what protection, system and limit can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ice protection system” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.