Without protection from in-flight airframe and propeller icing, the sweepstakes Bonanza would be handicapped during certain conditions. Technologies Inc. TKS Ice Protection System. The TKS system provides airframe, windshield, and propeller ice protection by distributing ice-protection fluid onto critical parts of the airplane before and during icing conditions. A fluid slinger ring system meters the non-freezing fluid onto the hub of each propeller blade.
Centrifugal force slings the fluid out along the blade leading edges.
Small holes in the spray bar evenly distribute fluid at the base of the windshield. The fluid, pushed along by slipstream air, then flows up over the top of the cabin, carrying away any ice, and is reapplied as necessary to prevent the formation of new ice. Neither propeller slingers nor windshield spray bars are particularly new inventions, with both being used on Douglas DC-3s and other early Transport category airplanes. But the part of the system that will shrug ice off the sweepstakes Bonanza's wings is ingenious and a relatively new application for general aviation airplanes. These leading edges are complex sandwiches of metal and other materials.