Dear friends and followers welcome back to this follow-up video on how airplanes deal with cold weather today
We'll be looking at the airplane's on board anti and de-icing systems
And what's that got to do with a plastic water bottle and what makes the Boeing 787 so revolutionary?
With regard to ice so let's get started
Big thank you to Squarespace for sponsoring today's video more info on what they can help you with at the end
Let's quickly look at which parts of the airplane are prone to ice
Accumulation now all parts which are directly exposed to the airplane's
Movement through the air such as wing leading edges the horizontal and vertical
stabilizers the engine intakes the propellers pitot tube static ports and antennas and any ice
accumulation can lead to reduce controllability increase in weight and reduce the overall performance of the plane and
icing can occur at temperatures below 10 degrees Celsius and visible moisture
So how do you get rid of accumulated ice on the leading edge of the wing for example there are
Various systems out there, which we'll look at in a minute, but most airline jets use the bleed air system
hot air is ducted via the engine bleed valve from the
compressor stage within the engine the air then runs through a pre-cooler to reduce its temperature to 200 degrees and
This cooled air is then distributed via the bleed ducts to
Consumers like the air conditioning packs for example and the wing anti-ice system now should visible ice be
indicated on the visual ice indicator
situated on the middle beam of the cockpit
windows
You must select wing anti-ice on the wing anti-ice valve opens up as shown on the ECAM bleed page and the hot
Bleed air is directed into the leading edge slats three four and five the principle is very similar to your household radiator
But instead of hot water running through the pipes hot air heats up
The leading edge and melts the ice so the hot air is then guided along the wing through these
telescopic pipes into a piccolo tube where the air is
Distributed through these little holes warming up the slats and exits via these little black holes at the end now you might ask
What about the inboard slats one and two why aren't they connected to the wing anti-ice system now as the slats
Diameter gets wider closer to the wing root
Ice is less prone to accumulate due to aerodynamical reasons and therefore no
Anti-icing system is needed now the system for the engine anti-ice
Works very similar the engine intake very often has this shiny alloy look alike surface. That's the engine anti-ice
area again hot air is extracted via the engine anti-ice valve from the
high-pressure compressor stage and is piped
Forwards to the engine intake the hot air is then distributed through this pipe with these little holes
Heating up the intake lip and melting any accumulated ice and once it's done the hot air
exits via this outlet right here and the ECAM displays
engine anti-ice
And at the same time the turbine
Ignition system is set to continuous to prevent any engine flameout should a lot of water be injected now you need to take special
Care in case of rapid ice buildup because as you press the engine anti-ice button
Chunks of ice could get sucked into the engine and damage to fan blades so why not leave the engine and wing anti-ice
Turned on throughout the entire flight to prevent ice from building up in the first place
The main concern as so often is fuel consumption when you turn on the wing or engine anti-ice
the FADEC increases the engines power to provide constant pressure to all other bleed air distributors thus
increasing the fuel consumption now
Let's look at other anti-icing systems turboprop planes like the Dash 8-Q400
For example are fitted with the so called de-icing boots system
Which is also based on bleed air supply extracted from the engines
And you can easily recognize these planes fitted with the pragmatic boot system as their leading edges come with a black rubber
coating and once you have visible indication of ice you actually wait a few minutes to let the ice build up a few layers and
Then activate the boots some of the bleed air is then guided into the rubber leading edge
Which expands rapidly and literally breaks up the ice
similar to blowing into a deep freeze squashed water bottle
But why is it necessary to wait before
Activating the system now in case of only a minor buildup of ice the boot might only push the ice layer
forward this layer would immediately
Refreeze and as the boot retracts it could leave a gap between the boot and the ice layer making further expansion
Ineffective so further ice buildup could have serious consequences
Which fatally happened on an ATR-72 flown by American Eagle in
1994. Why not use hot bleed air like jet airplanes do unfortunately
The bleed air output of turboprop engines is not high enough to supply a heated leading edge
But there are some exceptions for this for instance the Lockheed Electra and the convair
580 as they have engines with a higher core airflow propeller blades are also prone to
Icing therefore most of the blades surface is electrically heated
There is however a minor disadvantage when there is rapid ice buildup after
activating the heating system chunks of ice could get slammed into the fuselage and
Therefore protection panels had to be installed on such planes
Then there is the TKS de-icing system this uses a glycol-based
Fluid to cover the critical surfaces of an aircraft and the fluid is kept in a reservoir tank and is then pumped
forward to the leading edge and exit through small holes
so melting the ice it can also be used to de-ice some propeller blades and
Windshield and the system is great for planes within the general aviation
Category as most of them don't have a bleed air supply or an
Electrical output high enough to firmly heat the leading edge one third a system was introduced when Boeing launched a 787
dreamliner in 2011 for example the rolls-royce Trent
1700 engines are fitted with two high efficiency generators
Which produce enough power to electrically heat thermal mats
Installed within the leading edge slats the plane was built to be as fuel efficient as possible
Therefore has no engine bleed system besides the engine anti-ice
Also the air conditioning system is electrically driven to reduce the overall fuel flow of the plane
I don't believe I'm actually saying this, but Airbus you're gonna have to step up your game
And there's one more thing you might have thought that I have forgotten
What about de-icing of the horizontal and vertical stabilizer as they come in the same?
Shiny surface as slats and engine intakes do now most airline jets don't have heated stabilizers
but
During test flights these jets have to perform flights with three inches of ice at the leading edge of the horizontal stabilizer
with no significant impact on controllability
It's just more piping more weight more maintenance more money and this question is for all turboprop pilots out there
Why is your tail assembly fitted with de-icing boots please comment below so to sum up as you can see all different
systems come with their advantages and
Disadvantages, but let me assure you ice on planes is no joke do whatever it takes to get rid of it
ASAP and by the way a classic ATPL theory question is what's the difference between
Anti-ice and de-Ice anti icing prevents ice from accumulating in the first place and de-icing
Sheds build up ice I hope you enjoyed this video about the airplane wing and engine anti-ice
Systems and make sure to perform a touch-and-go Up my instagram account have the engine anti-ice on if there's visible moisture and temperatures below 10 degrees
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