Carbon Nanotube (CNT) Based Electrothermal Ice Protection System Flight Tests

Innovative carbon nanotube (CNT) electrothermal heating technology for ice protection systems is one of the alternatives under development that shall contribute to more efficient and sustainable aircraft. CNT heater technology allows for more rapid heat up rates over legacy metallic electrothermal heaters that utilize resistance wires or metallic foils. This more rapid heat up rate can lead to more energy efficient electrothermal ice protection system designs and is being studied to determine how much the rapid heat up properties of CNT can lead to a minimization of residual ice build-up aft of the heated area. Due to the inherent redundancy of CNT material used, leads to a very robust and damage tolerant heating element. To mature this technology to prepare to implement CNT on an in-service aircraft platform, a multi-staged flight testing effort to prove out the technology on an actual aircraft and in a relevant environment is mandatory. Recently a major milestone was achieved after successful execution of a dry air flight test campaign at Embraer’s Gavião Peixoto unit in Brazil. The new CNT ice protection system solution was successfully installed on the vertical stabilizer and flight tested in Embraer’s fully functional Phenom 300 prototype. Collins’ CNT heater and ice protection controller were integrated into the prototype aircraft before executing over 10 hours of ground and “dry air” flight tests. Since this was a prototype aircraft, the CNT was not certified for this aircraft and was only used for technology development purposes. As part of the effort to prepare a CNT based electrothermal ice protection system, structural and thermal analyses were performed along with icing wind tunnel testing to verify the performance of this new technology. This paper summarizes the work performed for the dry air flight test, including some initial performance results of CNT technology, and provide a brief review of the following development steps which included a natural ice flight test.