1 Performance and Durability Tests of Smart Icephobic Coatings to Prevent Runback Icing on Aircraft Wings Zaid A. Janjua¹, Barbara Turnbull¹, Kwang-Leong Choy ², Christos Pandis ², Junpeng Liu 1 , Xianghui Hou 1 , and Kwing-So Choi 1 . ¹ Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham. ² Institute for Materials Discovery, University College London (UCL). Keywords: Icephobic coatings, Runback icing, Aerofoil icing, Centrifuge. The accretion of ice on aircraft can change aerodynamic characteristics, greatly affecting the flight safety. Commercial aircrafts are, therefore, required to be equipped with deicing devices, such as heating mats over the wings. Here, the application of icephobic coatings near the leading edge of the wings can reduce the high power requirements of heating mats, which melt ice that forms there. Such coatings are effective in preventing the accretion of runback ice, formed from airborne supercooled droplets, or the water that the heating mats generate as it is sheared back over the wing’s upper surface. However, the durability and the practicality of applying them over a large wing surface have been prohibitive factors in deploying this technology so far.