Lancair International plans to fit a novel electromagnetic de-icing system to the Lancair IV and Columbia 300. The system is due for certification within the next three months.
The Electro-Explosive Separation System works by sending bursts of high-current electricity through two parallel layers of copper ribbon embedded in rubbery plastic. The resultant magnetic fields repel each other, causing the upper ribbon to jump away from the lower. Because the ribbons are bonded to wings, engine inlets and tail surfaces, the motion breaks the ice bond, shattering ice into salt-size particles. The system can run continually in flight without causing interference to the avionics.
It was invented in the late 1980s by Leonard Haslim of NASA Ames Research Center and licensed in 1995 to Ice Management Systems of Temecula, California. Lancair is working with Ice Management to test the system on the Lancair IV and to make it available later this year on the Columbia 300.
The system uses "one-thousandth the power and is one-tenth the weight of electro-thermal ice removal systems used today".
Source: Flight International