Flight Tests in Natural Icing of the PZL Mielec M28 Commuter Turboprop Airplane

PZL Mielec is in the process of certificating the ice protection systems installed on the M28 turboprop aircraft so that customers of that aircraft may operate in icing conditions. The M28 airplane is derived from the Antonov An-28, which was certificated in Russia to their icing certification requirements many decades ago. The M28 is equipped with a lot of western equipment, including Pratt and Whitney Canada engines and Hartzell propellers, and now has a no-hazard certification for the use of the installed ice protection system. The M28 ice protection equipment includes wing and tail anti-icing, engine inlet anti-icing, propeller deicing, and wing strut deicing. These systems have undergone a series of development flight tests and icing wind tunnel tests. This paper presents an overview of the flight tests and wind tunnel tests conducted to date.