Skip to main content
aerospace

Boeing hopes new non-stick coatings on aircraft wings will prevent dangerous build-ups of ice on wings and other surfaces.Brad Nettles/The Associated Press

Boeing Co. plans to test whether new non-stick aircraft coatings may provide a simple solution to an age-old aviation hazard: icing.

The paints are designed to cause ice to slide harmlessly off a plane's wings and flight-control surfaces, where dangerous build-ups can cause stalls or make aircraft difficult to control. They may help with another issue as well: bug splats that disrupt the flow of air over a jetliner's wings.

Those are among technologies that Boeing and Brazil's Embraer SA are slated to unveil Thursday, along with an Embraer E175 jet that will be converted into a flying laboratory. It's the first time Boeing has tested potential breakthroughs and processes on another manufacturer's aircraft under its ecoDemonstrator Program, an effort aimed at boosting innovation and mitigating aviation's impact on the environment.

"We are the biggest aerospace company in the world and we do a lot of work on advanced concepts," Mike Sinnett, vice-president of product development for Boeing's commercial airplanes division, told reporters in June. "And it's really cool stuff."

The U.S. plane maker, which celebrates its centennial on July 15, also plans to showcase technologies that may change flying for passengers and pilots in a special pavilion at the Farnborough International Airshow in Britain.

Within five years, Boeing planes may boast projection lighting that shows gate information or video images of a destination on the walls inside a jet cabin, Mr. Sinnett said. Cockpit displays on Boeing's upgraded 777X, slated to debut in 2020, will be the first to have interactive touch screens that respond to a pilot's commands similarly to an iPad's controls.

Boeing engineering teams are also studying longer-term projects, such as hybrid electric propulsion, all-electric aircraft and a 21st-century follow-up to the supersonic Concorde jets. Since 2012, Boeing has used the ecoDemonstrator program to test more than 50 technologies using three airplanes as flying testbeds: a 737-800, Boeing's fourth 787 flight-test airplane and a 757.

The ice-phobic paints, supplied by PPG Industries Inc., build on research Boeing conducted last year with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on coatings designed to prevent insect remains from sticking to the leading edge of a 757's wing. Studies have shown that keeping the air flow smooth, or laminar, over a wing can reduce fuel consumption as much as 6 per cent, according to NASA. Even bug guts can cause turbulent wedges that interrupt laminar flow, increasing drag and fuel use.

This year's ecoDemonstrator will test a proprietary paint, not commercially available, designed to reduce icing and accumulation of dirt and bugs, Boeing spokesman Peter Pedraza said. The coating may save energy by reducing the use of bleed – hot air diverted from the engines – or electrical systems that prevent icing on aircraft wings.

Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a rubbery coating that makes ice slide off airplanes or transmission lines with the force of gravity or wind. Their product was described in a paper published in the journal Science Advances in March. They are working with a plane maker to hone the spray-on coatings, said Gabe Cherry, a university spokesman. He declined to divulge the company's name.

Report an editorial error

Report a technical issue

Tickers mentioned in this story

Study and track financial data on any traded entity: click to open the full quote page. Data updated as of 28/03/24 7:00pm EDT.

SymbolName% changeLast
BA-N
Boeing Company
+0.54%192.99
ERJ-N
Embraer-Empresa Brasileira DE Aeronautica ADR
-0.04%26.64
PPG-N
PPG Industries
+0.25%144.9

Interact with The Globe