Apparatus for and a method of deicing a ducted fan engine

A method of deicing a ducted fan engine, the method being implemented utilizing a ground support deicing apparatus inserted into an inlet duct of a nacelle of the ducted fan engine, the ground support deicing apparatus including a support structure, a plurality of sonic wave transmitters connected to the support structure and communicating with a sonic wave processing circuit, an imaging device including a plurality of imaging sensors and an image processing circuit, and a controller, the method comprising:

• providing, by the controller, imaging signals to the image processing circuit to obtain image data from the plurality of imaging sensors;
• receiving, by the image processing circuit, image data provided by each of the plurality of imaging sensors, and generating, by the controller, images of at least one component part of the ducted fan engine;
• detecting, by the controller, via at least one of the received image data and/or the generated images, a presence or an absence of ice on the at least one component part of the ducted fan engine;
• and
• controlling, by the controller, based on the detecting step detecting the presence of ice on the at least one component part, the plurality of sonic wave transmitters to emit sonic waves in a given frequency range so as to remove the ice detected in the detecting step from the at least one component part of the ducted fan engine.