Convair Inflight Icing Research Experience and Management

The NRC Convair has been used for a wide range of atmospheric science flight research projects, including cloud physics, weather dynamics and environmental effects upon aircraft. Many of these have involved inflight icing exposure, and many have been dedicated to inflight icing research. This paper presents the Convair idiosyncratic inflight icing effects, on aeroplane aerodynamics, structures, powerplant operation and systems functioning. The effects include degraded and enhanced aeroplane aerodynamic performance, degraded powerplant performance and systems functioning. Particular risks and associated mitigations have been identified and are discussed. In some cases, the effects have been associated with particular icing environments. The notable icing environments of cold freezing drizzle, warm freezing rain have been discussed in detail. In addition, cold Arctic icing and tropical maritime ice crystal icing environmental exposures are included in the overall Convair operational and research experience.