Sikorsky’s S-92 helicopter has received US certification for flight into known icing, with Canadian and European approval pending. Certification followed three years of aircraft testing, including ice-accretion tests in the climatic hangar at Eglin AFB, Florida; ice-shape and ice-tanker flight tests; and flights in natural icing, which were completed last month in Alaska. The S-92’s rotor ice-protection system, with electrically heated mats on the main and tail rotors, will also be incorporated on the improved S-76D helicopter, which will enter service in 2008.
Source: Flight International
