AIRCRAFT ICE PROTECTION SYSTEM

摘要

An ice protection system (30) wherein a heater array (50) comprises a series of consecutive electrothermal heaters (51) which proceed one after another in a substantially aft-fore-aft path. A power source (60) supplies the heater array (50) with electrical energy and a heater interface (80) switches each heater (51) into either an ON condition or an OFF condition. The heater array (50) can be architected to effectively and efficiently protect an ice-susceptible aircraft surface (40) by strategic heater shaping, concentrated power-density allocation, and/or tactical heating-episode execution.