Wing Armor

Wing Armor is a division of Leading Edge De-icing Specialists, founded by Walter Randa, who has run winter-operations training since 1992 with NATA, NBAA, CBAA and FlightSafety; the equipment is manufactured by METEC Metal Technology Inc. at 20 Terry Fox Drive in Vankleek Hill, Ontario, and the company states no separate head-office address. Its mission is to give corporate flight departments, business-jet operators, FBOs and smaller or remote airports an alternative to paying commercial deicing facilities — it cites $10,000–$20,000 per deicing at the big pads.

The JETstream is a wheeled, tow-bar portable deicer with 200 US gallons of Type I, a 400,000-BTU heater pre-heating fluid to 40 °C, a 12-hp Honda GX390 engine, a 38-inch spray gun on a 100-ft retractable hose at 3,500 psi and 4 gpm instead of a basket, a digital meter, and dimensions that let it ride in a Dash 8; the prototype dates from about 2022 after R&D from 2020, tested by APS Aviation. The hand-towed Anti-Icer cart carries 60 gallons of Type II, III or IV in stainless with two 75-ft reels to spray both wings at once, which the company says covers super-large business jets. Training is the Leading Edge 8-hour "Fly Clean, Fly Safe" program, stated to comply with FAR 121.629, 135, 125 and 91 and Transport Canada CAR 622.11, plus a mobile training unit built around a Learjet 40XR replica. Pricing is not published.