THE COMPETITION TO equip more than 1,100 McDonnell Douglas MD-80s with anti-icing systems is intensifying as both contending companies claim major new customers.
The competing systems, AlliedSignal's electro-thermal ice protection system, the ETIPS-80, and TDG Aerospace's NOFOD, have been developed to combat clear-ice accretion problems, which affect the "cold corner" of MD-80 wing upper surfaces. Cold-soaked fuel in the wing tank, causes ice formation in moist air, even when temperatures are well above freezing. Ice detaching from the wing and ingested by the engines caused the crash landing of a Scandinavian Airlines System aircraft in December 1991.
AlliedSignal, which launched its ETIPS-80 in a development programme with Continental Airlines, has won a double order from Austrian Airlines and Swissair. The victory continues AlliedSignal's European market penetration, with SAS placing orders for 65 systems. The first of these were installed in May.
TDG Aerospace, based in Pleasanton, California, meanwhile continues to consolidate its US dominance by winning an order from Alaska Airlines for its over-wing ice-protection system. TDG's system was developed under contract with American Airlines, which wanted a solution to a 1992 U.S. Federal Aviation Administration airworthiness directive, requiring visual and tactile inspection of the wing before take-off. TDG subsequently won a contract from American to equip its 260-plus MD-80 fleet.
Source: Flight International
