Researchers work on ways to keep planes ice-free
 

Researchers work on ways to keep planes ice-free
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Winter air travel can get complicated when temperatures dip below freezing.*Ensuring that an airplane is free of ice is a critical but expensive and time-consuming part of the process before take-off.

But several groups of researchers are working on in**vative solutions to icy conditions, and both Japanese researchers and a team at the University of Michigan an**unced projects in the past week that could eventually make deicing a thing of the past.

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Japanese researchers an**unced the development of a*gel coating — which was partially inspired by the secretion of slugs — that becomes liquid-like when temperatures drop below freezing, making*surfaces on the plane so slippery that ice can**t adhere to it. As temperatures rise, the liquid turns back into a gel. Read more...


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