Every winter season, APS Aviation Inc. (a RHEA Inc. company) conducts several research and development activities to improve flight operations in winter conditions. This year’s projects were completed in different locations within Canada.
With changing markets and efforts towards supply chain optimization from fluid manufacturers and deicing operators, there has been an increased focus on new research and development initiatives related to winter operations safety.
Of the ongoing initiatives, some are designed to expand the environmental conditions in which operational guidance is provided, which requires extensive experimentation, analysis, and support to be able to execute them effectively. Furthermore, fluid manufacturers around the globe are constantly developing new and innovative anti-icing fluids that also require significant testing to be approved for market use.
This has led to a very busy testing season for the team at APS. Recent months have seen the team complete numerous test campaigns, including aerodynamic performance testing at the NRC M46 wind tunnel, mixed icing conditions testing at the NRC U88 climatic engineering facility, and standard fluid holdover time testing with new-to-market fluids at the APS test site in Montreal, Quebec.
The APS team in action
The video shows the APS team in various testing locales, diligently completing the hard work needed to support and maintain safe winter operations for aviators across the globe.