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“HOW STRUCTURAL ICE INTERFERES WITH NORMAL FLIGHT PROCEDURES AND HOW THE HAZARD CAN BE REDUCED. CARBURETOR AND PITOT TUBE ICING; TURBO-JET ENGINE PROBLEMS; ILLUSTRATIONS OF RIME AND CLEAR ICE, AND FACTORS SUCH AS TEMPERATURE, MOISTURE AND ALTITUDE WHICH CONTRIBUTE TO EACH TYPE”
US Navy Training Film MN-9487a
Reupload of a previously uploaded film, in one piece instead of multiple parts, and with improved video & sound.
Public domain film from the US National Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.
The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).
Atmospheric icing occurs when water droplets in the atmosphere freeze on objects they contact. This can be extremely dangerous to aircraft, as the built-up ice changes the aerodynamics of the flight surfaces, which can increase the risk of a subsequent stalling of the airfoil. For this reason, ice protection systems are often considered critical components of flight, and aircraft are often deiced prior to take-off in icy environments…
Ice protection systems are designed to keep atmospheric ice from accumulating on aircraft flight surfaces while in flight. The effects of ice accretion on an aircraft can cause the shape of airfoils and flight control surfaces to change, which can ultimately lead to a complete loss of control and/or insufficient lift to keep the aircraft airborne…
Ice accumulates on the leading edges of wings, tailplanes, and vertical stabilizers as an aircraft flies through a cloud containing super-cooled water droplets. Super-cooled water is water that is below freezing, but still a liquid. Normally, this water would turn to ice at 32°F (0°C), but there are no “contaminants” (ice nucleus) on which the drops can freeze. When the airplane flies through the super-cooled water droplets, the plane becomes the droplet nucleus, allowing the water to freeze on the surface. This process is known as accretion.
Droplets of supercooled water often exist in stratiform and cumulus clouds.
A popular misconception is that aircraft icing events result from the weight of accreted ice on the airframe. This is not the case. Rather, airframe icing causes problems by modifying the airflow over flight surfaces upon which the ice accretes. When ice accretes on aerodynamic lift surfaces, such as the wing and tailplane, the modification of airflow changes the aerodynamics of the surfaces by modifying both their shape and their surface roughness, typically increasing their drag and decreasing their lift. The particular effect of icing on the aerodynamics of a lift surface is a complicated function of the ice shape and location as well as of the amount of ice. These characteristics in turn depend in a complicated fashion on atmospheric conditions such as the amount, temperature, and droplet size of water in the air. The composite effect of this aerodynamic deterioration over all lift surfaces is a degradation of aircraft flight dynamics. In severe atmospheric conditions, dangerous levels of icing can be obtained in as little as five minutes. Small to moderate amounts of icing generally cause a reduction in aircraft performance in terms of climb rates, range, endurance, and maximum speed and acceleration. Icing effects of this type are known as performance events. As icing increases, separation of air flow from the flight surfaces can cause loss of pilot control and even wildly unstable behaviour. These more severe icing events, known as handling events, are often precipitated by a change in the aircraft configuration or an aircraft maneuver effected by a pilot unaware of the flight-dynamics degradation. This was the case with American Eagle Flight 4184, where the aircraft experienced an uncontrolled roll of 120 degrees in five seconds after the pilot initiated a flap retraction. Another icing event that led to a major crash was the Aero Caribbean Flight 883 that experienced icing conditions at 20,000 feet height after a crew request of course change. They lost control of the aircraft after they initiated a roll to change the aircraft’s direction. This loss of control can be defined as a handling event. Handling events generally can be classified into either tailplane stall, where the aircraft pitches forward, or asymmetric wing effects causing a roll upset (or roll snatch) as in the American Eagle Flight 4184 accident…
