FREEZING RAIN AS AN IN-FLIGHT HAZARD

Exposure to supercooled large drops (SLD) can pose a significant threat to the safety of some aircraft. Although SLD includes both freezing drizzle (FZDZ) and freezing rain (FZRA), much of the SLD research and development of operational SLD forecast tools has focused on FZDZ and ignored FZRA, regarding it as less of a hazard to aviation. This paper provides a counterpoint case study that demonstrates FZRA as a significant in-flight icing hazard. The case study is based on flight and meteorological data from an icing research project. Although this case study provides only a singular FZRA event with one aircraft type, it is clear that classical FZRA can pose a significant in-flight icing hazard, and should not be ignored when considering SLD issues.

• Corporate Authors:

  National Aeronautics and Space Administration

  Glenn Research Center, 21000 Brookpark Road
  Cleveland, OH  United States  44135
• Authors:
  • Bernstein, B C
  • Ratvasky, T P
  • Miller, D R
  • McDonough, F
• Publication Date: 2000-5

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 12 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Aviation safety; Freezing; Hazard analysis; Icing; Rain; Supercooling; Water
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00800991
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: NAS 1.15:210058,, NASA/TM-2000-210058', E-12260
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Oct 30 2000 12:00AM