Title: NASA Glenn
1NASA Glenn Progress in Fire Protection Research
International Aircraft Systems Fire
Protection Working Group Workshop Atlantic
City NJ. 5-6 November, 2003
Bob McKnight robert.c.mcknight_at_ nasa.gov Al
Linne alan.a.linne_at_nasa.gov Clarence
Chang clarence.t.chang_at_nasa.gov Jennifer Xu
jennifer.c.xu_at_nasa.gov
2Organization- Accident Mitigation Project
Advanced OBIGGS/OBOGS Fuel Tank Inerting
Elevated Flash Point Fuels / Flammability
Low False Alarm Fire Detection
3Recent Accomplishments
- Fuel Tank Inerting
- Flight test planning JSC B-747 Shuttle Carrier
Aircraft - Valcor PH II -testing of small scale advanced
high temp membrane - Honeywell PH II-identified high temp materials
and solvents for advanced membrane manufacturing
process - Security program planning
- Flammability feed-back control sensors,
algorithms - Participation in Air Force Large Aircraft
Survivability Initiative (LASI) - Low False Alarm Fire Detection
- Testing at NIST
- Testing at Boeing Commercial
- Proposal for hidden fire detecting and locating
on technology - Elevated Flash-Point Fuels
- Fuel modification concepts identified.
4Security-Fuel Tank Inerting Background
Civil transport aircraft are now subject to what
was once only a military threat MANPADS and
Small Arms (Man Portable Air Defense System)
Their proliferation has resulted in numerous
shoot-downs and close-calls involving civil
passenger aircraft. From 1975-1998, 585
passengers and crewmembers of commercial
transport aircraft died from MANPADS missile
attacks. The attacks brought down 24 aircraft and
severely damaged 10. (1) . They have long reach
to arriving/departing aircraft Key to the threat
is the difficulty of securing the 100 or more
square miles of land surrounding civil airports.
(2) They use the fuel system against the
aircraft The explosion of a 2 lb MANPADS
warhead or impact effects of small arms can
induce a far larger explosion of fuel tanks.
Moderate damage can be magnified to make the
aircraft unflyable. Countermeasures to throw off
guidance systems are limited Countermeasures can
be defeated
Small arms operate without
automatic guidance 1. National MANPADS Workshop,
Redstone Arsenal AL, 1998 2. The Vexing
Problem of Protecting Airliners from MANPADS
Aircraft Survivability Magazine, spring 2003 3.
Aircraft Survivability Magazine, spring 2003
Figure 1. The five foot long Stinger is seen
approaching the C130 from the rear.(3)