Aircraft Quiz No. 119

DougRobertson

Quite awhile ago the U.S.Air Force tried to reduce the danger of fire in it's airplane crashes.

1. How did they attempt to do this? Be specific.

2. What exact month and year did they publicly announce that they had been using in their aircraft fuel tanks something for virtually eliminating the danger of fire or explosion from pierced aircraft fuel tanks?

3. What were they installing in their aircraft fuel tanks to prevent fire in their aircraft's fuel tanks? Answer should equal question No.1 correct answer.

moxy

1. Filling the fuel tanks with a polyurethane foam to act as a baffle to retard surging of fuel, to have a damping effect on fire or explosion and provide fluid retention.

2. Declassified 30th March 1976

3. Foamex polyurethane safety foam , a three dimensional fire screen.

I am not convinced by any means that I am correct but we'll give it a whirl.

Cheers

Rob

DougRobertson

Well Rob, congrats-you basically got it. My date of the US Air Force announcement was in September, 1967. The tank fill was so porous that it hardly affected fuel capacity. The substance was credited with eliminating danger of fire and explosion if a fuel tank was pierced. Again, Congrats to you!

In a similar vein, in Summer 1967 a major American oil company got Federal Aviation Agency approval to use with certain aircraft engines a biocide that when added to jet fuel completely destroyed tiny microorganisms in the jet fuel, reducing corrosion and need to dismantle the fuel system and clean it.This eliminated an unusual danger to jet aircraft.