--- --- Oct 30, 2024 # Fewer Winter Flight Delays by [Chris Stokel-Walker](https://time.com/author/chris-stokel-walker/) ## Chris Stokel-Walker  Alex Bratianu-Badea experienced his first de-icing—in which a plane is sprayed with hot chemicals to remove ice—in 2015 as a Massachusetts Institute of Technology grad school student. Unsurprisingly, the process delayed his flight out of Boston. He and De-Ice cofounder Ruben Toubiana spent years developing an alternate solution: applying thin strips of tape to the aircraft fuselage that defrost the plane using a physics process similar to the one used by induction stoves. This winter, the startup’s pilot-controlled system will be installed on Air Canada’s A320s. Because it doesn’t require hot chemicals, Bratianu-Badea says, “it works in parallel with other ground operations, like boarding and putting in the luggage,” which should mean fewer delays. These are independent reviews of the products mentioned, but TIME receives a commission when purchases are made through affiliate links at no additional cost to the purchaser. De-Ice: the 200 Best Inventions of 2024 ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2024/7094856/de-ice/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2024/7094856/de-ice/"},"headline":"De-Ice: the 200 Best Inventions of 2024","datePublished":"2024-10-30T11:19:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T11:54:33.132Z","description":"Find out why De-Ice is one of the best inventions of 2024","url":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2024/7094856/de-ice/","keywords":["Tech","E-Commerce","list","franchise","Magazine","best inventions"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt04710913cfd790c6/698a90fadb29875a602718a4/De-Ice-Heating-Strip-Wing.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Chris Stokel-Walker","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/chris-stokel-walker/"}],"creator":"Chris Stokel-Walker","articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt04710913cfd790c6/698a90fadb29875a602718a4/De-Ice-Heating-Strip-Wing.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2024/7094856/de-ice/","name":"De-Ice: the 200 Best Inventions of 2024"}}]}] ```