Have you ever wondered what it takes to keep planes flying safely and airports operating smoothly during winter’s harshest conditions?
As winter’s icy grip tightens, the critical operation of de-icing planes at airports becomes essential, not just for the safety of flights but also for the longevity of the infrastructure, where the metalwork demands corrosion-resistant engineering to withstand the harsh conditions.
British Airways recently released a video showing the behind-the-scenes work that the Winter Operations teams carry out, to enable the fleet to depart out of Heathrow safely in chilly temperatures:
Winter operation is started as soon as it hits three degrees. Aircraft are de-iced just before take-off, with customers on board, baggage fully loaded and engines running, and the team treat across areas such as the wings, stabilisers and tail.
De-icing is critical to protect the aircraft while in flight, and there is remote de-icing available to avoid delays.
Can treat the aircraft within 5 to 8 minutes, depending on size. De-icing fluid is mixed with water at 60 degrees and sprayed onto aircraft, and is a bright orange colour so can clearly see that it’s been treated.
Whilst de-icing is taking place airside, airports are de-icing their car parks and public areas landside too. This action, along with the de-icing fluid run-off can have an impact on the metalwork and infrastructure of the airport environment. Some de-icing products contain chemicals which can lead to corrosion in the presence of some metals. It is important to consider this when specifying and proposing metalwork used for surface and sub surface hardware.
During work at Heathrow’s Terminal 5, KITE Projects collaborated with like-minded engineers to design and supply a corrosion resilient solution in the form of 521no pit covers for the Terminal 5 plaza. These covers were built with 316 Stainless Steel plate, a material renowned for corrosion resistance. This enhances the performance of the product, especially at low temperatures where anti-freeze products and salt present a threat to longevity and material integrity.
As we continue to face challenging winter conditions, it’s important for engineers to consider the impact that de-icing fluids have on the infrastructure, and why it requires corrosion resilient engineering to give longer service life to the solutions that help to keep the aviation network moving.