GB563042A - Improvements in or relating to apparatus for preventing and removing the accumulation of ice on surfaces exposed to icing conditions - Google Patents

Abstract

563,042. Preventing ice accumulation on aircraft. GEER, W. C. Sept. 16, 1942, No. 13076. Convention date, Sept. 20, 1941. [Class 4] In means for preventing the accumulation of ice on the surface o aircraft and other structures' comprising a covering adapted to be distorted by inflatable elements, there is provided in addition to the elements that are inflated for usual icing conditions, elements that are inflated at a higher pressure to remove heavy glaze ice that may be formed. The elements that are normally inflated at the lower pressure may also be inflated at the higher pressure. As shown, a shoe 10 mounted on the forward edge of an aircraft wing 11 comprises elements 16, 17, 18 normally for low pressure inflation disposed between a bottom layer 14 and a stretchable surface layer 15. Strips 19 of stretchable fabric may be spaced along the shoe as described in Specification 518,180. Elements 23 ... 27 for high pressure inflation are disposed one above the element 17 and others at the edges of the group 16, 17, 18 and at the margins of the shoe. The elements 16, 18 may be inflated in alternation with the element 17 by a motor driven distributer 28 of the kind described in Specification 545,637, to which may be coupled a similar distributer 32 for the elements 23 ... 27, the distributers being respectively connected to low and high pressure supply pipes 29a, 33. The elements 23 ... 27 may instead be manually controlled by valves 37, 38 and the distributer 28 with the elements 16, 17, 18 may be connected to the high pressure supply through the pipe 39a and valve 40.