Sensing icing conditions before ice forms
Small amounts of moisture in freezing conditions create an environment for aircraft icing which can severely affect an aircraft's performance. The Safe Flight Icing Conditions Detector (ICD) detects the meteorological conditions that contribute to airframe icing – visible moisture and temperatures less than 5°C. The ICD senses these conditions before ice builds on the airframe, giving the pilot ample time to depart the icing conditions or activate the aircraft's ice protection equipment.
The ICD's independent optical moisture and temperature transducers quantify the local atmospheric conditions. The heated optical transducer measures the moisture across the unit and the shielded temperature transducer determines the outside temperature. The ICD has been tested to meet or exceed the most stringent icing detection requirements and has proven to provide accurate alerting within seconds of entering these extremely hazardous conditions.
