PREVENTING FROST

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22932, 10 January 1938, Page 7

PREVENTING FROST

AEROPLANE COMPOUND TEST ON ATLANTIC FLIGHT Striking results are claimed for an anti-icing compound, known as "killfrost," painted on the wings, control surfaces, and propellers of aeroplanes, which has been developed for Imperial Airways. At a recent demonstration at Croydon the compound was smeared over the vulnerable parts, but conditions were not favourable for an actual tost in ice-forming conditions. While it is not claimed that this method is yet perfect, it is urged that it is efficacious enough in its present form to justify its immediate use. The investor, Mr. J. Halbert. used such a compound to defeat ice incrustation in refrigerating plants. It has other extensive applications. The compound, as used at present, is an improvement on its original form and it is claimed that rain or sleet, at the great speed at which an aeroplane encounters them, would not scour the compound off. Although some might be washed away, there remained a coating which retained its ice-preventing Quality.

Mr. Halbert said he hoped that means would bo devised by which the compound would be mechanically distributed, and the mechanism automatically actuated by the advent of ice-form-ing conditions. Imperial Airways flying-boats and other air liners now have their vulnerable parts painted with the compound. It is stated that Captain Powell, the commander of the Cambria, reported, after the last of her recent flights across the Atlantic, that after two hours of blinding rain, the compound remained in sufficient quantity to bo efficacious. In one experiment a wireless aerial not coated with "killfrost" broke under the weight of the ice on it; another aerial, which had been coated, was in no way impaired. The nature of the compound is a secret. The weight sufficient for one Empire flying-boat is about 301b, and tho cost works ,out at about 2s 6d per lb. ,v; In the United States an ice-breaking contrivance has been officially ap« proved. It consists of a, flat rubber tub© along the leading edge. Tho mechattio ally-induced pulsatidna of the tube break up the ice.