Since the radar is in the nose cone and that works best as non metallic, maybe they needed TKS for that and thought, they might as well use it for the windshield since it will naturally blow back onto the windshield. On the SR22, they did something really cool by making the prop TKS slinger throw off TKS fluid exactly in the lower middle of the windshield in front of P1 so it clears the windshield.
Cirrus_Man wrote:
they did something really cool by making the prop TKS slinger throw off TKS fluid exactly in the lower middle of the windshield in front of P1
It makes a real mess when you use your TKS system in flight. You can hardly see out of the windshield…
Mustang uses electrically heated windshields. TKS is horribly messy. I don’t have a deiced nose, not sure any light jets do.
Well, TKS is the poor man’s anti-ice system. For what you do in a SR22 or Mooney it’s fine. And I guess it’s fine to deice a windshield.
It will work (until the fluid runs out) just doesn’t strike me as exactly the elegant solution I would want in $2mn+ airframe. Not on TBM, PA46 etc.
Well, the old compromise topic. I wonder what the reason is for not making the windshield deice electric.
They probably need nose de-icing given the shape and aerodynamic stability of the frame.
Actually it may be they need deicing there to stop ice forming and being ingested into the engine as it melts during descent.
Yes I think Jason may be correct as the airflow directly back from the nose and windshield could flow towards the centrally mounted engine. I doubt that icing on the nose would be enough to affect aerodynamic stability.
They did a huge amount of testing of engine inlet icing for the FAA certification, see below
Cirrus_man thanks for the background posts on the tests, interesting topic.
The DA42 uses TKS for the windscreen, and yes on the ground it doesn’t help with visibility, but used in the air there doesn’t appear to be a problem. The fluid limits time in icing, but it’s there to get out of the icing, not loiter in an icing level.
Electric windscreen and bird strike risk may be worth exploring, presumably the Cirrus Jet is also going through bird strike tests.
