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Old 13th Apr 2002, 22:13
  #20 (permalink)  
Nick Lappos
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There really is no partial anti-ice anymore. The system is based on the Black Hawk's, but with more heat, more zones and lessons learned on harness and system life. It is a de-ice system, some ice is allowed to gather. The blades have various zones that are heated by electric mats. The computer controller selects the zones in sequence, as the ice is accumulated. The blast of heat disbonds the ice, and the centripital (thought you'd catch me, didn't you!) force tosses the ice away. The zones are selected, and so is the exact blade position so the ice is tossed away from the tail rotor. The timing of the electricity is determined by a redundant ice rate meter, so the amount of accumulation is known. Pretty classy stuff.

We have built about 2,000 de-iced helos, so it is not exotic engineering.

The 92 has three gens, two 75 KVA to run the system, and a 35 KVA for other stuff so it can take a gen failure and keep de-icing.

The hard part is finding the really heavy ice conditions to satisfy the FAA, which sets ice capability about 3 times more intense than the military, and is hard-lined about the tests ever since the ATR icing crash proved how tough Mother Nature can be.