Aircraft leading edges minor damages detection based on thermographic survey of electrical anti-icing system

Aircraft leading edge is one of the most important subjects of aircraft scheduled maintenance. Leading edge as part of the slot on transport aircraft is not critical to fatigue stress in most of the cases. However, leading edge is extremely vulnerable to the accidental damage in combination with environmental damage. Maintenance is usually provided by visual inspection before every flight. Nevertheless, development of anti-icing system based on contact electrical heating opens possibility to thermographic Nondestructive Testing (NDT) methods usage. These methods could detect minor damages, which are visually undetectable especially in the case of composite materials. This paper describes possibility of thermographic methods (using anti-icing system) application as mean of leading edge minor damage detection.