In fact, airplane de-icing is a cumbersome and time-consuming task. In most cases it is done at a departure gate with workers spraying a chemical liquid over the plane. They do this while standing in cherry pickers mounted on trucks, which must be maneuvered around the plane. The procedure can take about 20 minutes.
To speed up the process and make it more efficient, airlines at various airports have begun installing huge gantries, frameworks where planes pull up and are sprayed by computer-controlled nozzles for about five minutes each.
The systems are built in Lulea, Sweden, by the De-icing System Group. They are now in operation at Standiford Airport in Louisville, at Stapleton International in Denver, and most recently at the new Franz Josef Strauss Airport in Munich, the first site in Europe with such a de-icer.
The gantry at Standiford cost $4.7 million. It is 70 feet tall and weighs 130 tons.
