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Icing conditions exist when the air contains droplets of supercooled water. They freeze on contact with a potential nucleation site, which in this case is the parts of the aircraft, causing icing. Icing conditions are characterized quantitatively by the average droplet size, the liquid water content and the air temperature.
Atmospheric icing occurs on aircraft, towers, wind turbines, boats, oil rigs, and trees. Unmanned aircraft are particularly sensitive to icing. [ 1 ] In cold climates, particularly those at higher elevations, atmospheric icing is common in winter as elevated terrain interacts with supercooled clouds that can cause icing on contact. [ 2 ]
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 ...
In-flight icing can “distort the flow of air over the wing and adversely affect handling qualities,” according to Federal Aviation Administration documents, leading an airplane to “roll or ...
In aviation, ground deicing of aircraft is the process of removing surface frost, ice or frozen contaminants on aircraft surfaces before an aircraft takes off. This prevents even a small amount of surface frost or ice on aircraft surfaces from severely impacting flight performance.
Rime ice also forms when ice forms on the surface of an aircraft, particularly on the leading edges and control surfaces when it flies through a cloud made of supercooled water liquid droplets. Rime ice is the least dense, milky ice is intermediately dense and clear ice is the most dense. All forms of ice can spoil lift and may have a ...
The aircraft encountered minor freezing precipitation and entered a cloud bank as it was climbing over Buffalo Pass. The Twin Otter encountered severe icing conditions on the aircraft's propellers and windshield, but the aircraft's deicing systems was able to remove the ice. The flight was able to climb up to 13,000 ft (4,000 m), but neither ...
The use of deicing boots may enable an aircraft to be certified for flight into known icing conditions. However, they may not be sufficient to handle extremely severe icing, where ice can accumulate faster than the boots can shed it, or it accumulates on non-booted surfaces to the point where there is a dangerous loss of lift or control, or ...