Rotorcraft
Consortium Advances New Approach to Rotor Ice Protection
The European Clean Aviation program's No Ice Rotor consortium has been testing a protection system for Leonardo's new tilt rotor aircraft.
Rotor blade ice protection system test bed with parts of rotor blades wired with heating
The European Clean Sky No Ice Rotor group has been testing an icing protection system for rotor blades. (Image: Clean Aviation)

The No Ice Rotor consortium this week reported what it claims is a breakthrough in the development, testing, and integration of a novel ice protection system (IPS) for rotor blades. The group of companies have been working as part of the European Union-backed Clean Sky 2 project to develop more environmentally-sustainable aviation technology—initially for Leonardo's Next Generation Civil Tilt Rotor (NGCTR).

This technology promises both anti-icing and deicing capabilities by incorporating embedded “heating mats” within the rotor blades. To achieve this, two heater mats were stacked on top of each other with a mechanical and electrical insulation layer between them.