Abstract: In view of the application prospect of ultrasonic guided wave technology in aircraft icing detection, combined with the development trend of aviation composite materials, the propagation characteristics of shear horizontal waves in ice-coated carbon fiber reinforced polymer plate were studied emphatically. The method of obtaining material stiffness matrix from independent engineering constant is proposed, and the layered waveguide model is established by transfer matrix method, which overcomes the shortcoming of traditional global matrix method. The dispersion curves of shear horizontal waves in different situations are drawn, and the influence of ice layer, ice thickness and ice type on the propagation characteristics of shear horizontal waves is summarized by comparing their differences, which provides a theoretical basis for ice detection.