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PZL Mielec is in the process of certificating the ice protection systems installed on the M28 turboprop aircraft so that customers of that aircraft may operate in icing conditions. The M28 airplane is derived from the Antonov An-28, which was certificated in Russia to their icing certification requirements many decades ago. The M28 is equipped with a lot of western equipment, including Pratt and Whitney Canada engines and Hartzell propellers, and now has a no-hazard certification for the use of the installed ice protection system. The M28 ice protection equipment includes wing and tail anti-icing, engine inlet anti-icing, propeller deicing, and wing strut deicing. These systems have undergone a series of development flight tests and icing wind tunnel tests. This paper presents an overview of the flight tests and wind tunnel tests conducted to date.

In 2014 PZL Mielec obtained an EASA Type Certificate extension for the PZL M28 05 airplane for flight into icing conditions and this has been validated by the FAA. Thus, a project that lasted four years was finished successfully. During this period, activities consisted of icing analyses, wind tunnel tests in the NASA Glenn Research Center Icing Research Tunnel, and natural icing flight tests, artificial icing flight tests, flight tests with simulated ice shapes, and calibration tests. Flights in measured natural icing conditions began during the spring of 2009 and certification flight tests were performed in 2012. The natural icing test flights, apart one flight in the USA, were performed in Poland in the Mielec area. The final test campaign can be divided into two phases: (1) March -April flight tests campaign; and (2) November - December flight test campaign, the latter after introducing some design changes in airframe ice protection system.