ICE DANGER TO FLYING

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 167, 16 July 1937, Page 8

ICE DANGER TO FLYING

80 many recent flying disasters have been attributed to the formation of ice on wings and propellers that this has become a question of urgent importance, and the fact that a contriv ance known as the de-icer is us»g o?i many American and European, and on some British air lines, but not by Imperial Airways, provokes surprise. It is claimed that at least throi rc-J cent accidents on tho Continent due to ice formation occurred to air.-raft fitted with de-icers, and that reliance upon a contrivance which at tho critical moment may fail may lead to disaster. If ice-forming condition ccubl at all times be forecast the solution would be simple. It would merely be necessary to cancel the intended flight. This, however, is not always possible, and not always done. A reason for not adopting tho deicer on some types of aircraft has been put forward. The machines concerned are biplanes with wings of somewhat thin section, and it is true that the de-icer in common use is not .-*•/ easily adaptable to them as- to deepsection wings. The older aircraft in the service Oj Imperial Airway® are biplanes with thin-section wings The new b ! g fly ing boats and laud aeroplanes are monoplanes with dcep-sectiou wings, but

Device For Safety Wanted

still Imperial Airways awaits a de-ice* of greater reliability. The most commonly used de-icer is a strip of rubber tube, along the lead* ing edge of the wing, which, by « movement due to pulsated inflation, causes ice to break as soon as it forms. As regards the propellers, a device which sprays the vital part of the pro* peller blades with a chemical prevent* ice forming. The danger duo to ice formation :* not so much the edded weight a? tnO deformation of the essential shaye o» wing or propeller blade, red- cing thou efficiency, and in the case of wing- o* control surfaces upsetting the function to such an extent that the controls* actuated by the pilot become ineffect* ive and even misleading. lu the case of the disaster to 11 | Capricornus, or rather in such a predicament as the pilot oi that mac hi no may have found himse f in, it is con* eeivable that the fl/inj boat would have been taken to *i c ra.-ter •’cigh* than the tops of tho nil*. risking ic* formation in the colder air, if the ma* chine had been equipped with deicers. That situation may, at any rate, occur at other times and pieces. Climbing to a greater height, and rick n.g* tbe possibility that the de-icer might not function adequately, would be the lesser of two evils iu a grt.'6 emcr-J geney.