In recent years, the research on aircraft de-icing has attracted much attention. Traditional active anti-icing/deicing methods increase the cost of aircraft designing and manufacturing, accompanying the continuous vibration or cold-hot alternation greatly reduces the service life of aircraft skin materials, which causes serious potential safety hazards. Therefore, inspired by natural plants, the novel passive superhydrophobic anti-icing technology with low coast, high efficiency and light weight, has been widely discussed and studied. In this paper, the latest development of superhydrophobic wetting theory on the new passive superhydrophobic anti-icing material is reviewed. Some typical wetting theory models are summarized, including Young‘s equation, Wenzel theory, Cassie-Baxter theory, contact line theory and so on. Some widely used preparation methods, including etching method, sol-gel method and vapor deposition method, are also summarized. In addition, in view of the current domestic and foreign research hot spots, the anti-icing performance and mechanism of aircraft are described in this paper. The mechanism of impact droplet bouncing dynamics, icing thermodynamics, phase theory, heterogeneous nucleation theory, heat transfer theory on icing nucleation and icing delay are reviewed. Furthermore, the test and evaluation methods of icing adhesion performance are also discussed. Finally, some issues is prospected, including the test standards of icing adhesion strength, the differences of icing adhesion between different ice types, the deicing performance under shear force and the corresponding mechanism.