Testing "Fuel Inerting" Concept
An aircraft normally used to transport the Space Shuttle has
been pressed into service to test technology to make airliners
safer.
Researchers from NASA's Glenn Research Center (GRC) at Cleveland
(OH) arranged for a fuel inerting system to be installed aboard a
NASA Boeing 747. The system, designed to reduce the chance of an
explosion inside an airplane fuel tank, made its first flight tests
as part of ongoing research being conducted by the FAA in
partnership with NASA.
GRC's Dr. Clarence Chang proposed that the FAA use the B747-100
Shuttle Carrier Aircraft based at NASA's Dryden Flight Research
Center Edwards (CA).
"I'm glad we were able to help make this happen," Chang said.
"We look forward to the benefits that will be derived as a result
of the flight testing," he added.
The FAA had already tested the system using ground-based
facilities. The next critical step in the technology development
was the program of actual flight tests aboard a large aircraft,
such as NASA's 747.
The tests, completed in two weeks last month at NASA's Johnson
Space Center, Houston, produced data the FAA will use to help
implement its recently announced policy requiring measures to
reduce fuel-tank flammability in the near future.
The FAA and NASA have been working on technology to prevent fuel
tank fires since July 1996. That's when TWA Flight 800, a Boeing
747-131, suffered a catastrophic fuel tank explosion. The jumbo jet
crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches, N.Y., killing
all 230 people on board.
Fuel-tank inerting technology works by replacing, in the fuel
tank space open to air and fuel vapors, much of the air or oxygen
with nitrogen. Oxygen accelerates fire. Replacing the oxygen with
nitrogen suppresses it.
To design a system that can be more readily installed on
airliners, the FAA developed a relatively simple and unique
technology-test system made up of inerting technology already
available. NASA is conducting research that is closely coupled with
the FAA's efforts. GRC's engineers are studying next-generation
advanced gas-separation technologies that can make inert gas
generation cheaper and fuels harder to ignite in the tank. This
work, and research into advanced fire-detection gas sensors, is
part of NASA's Aviation Safety and Security Program.
The NASA Aviation Safety and Security Program is a partnership
with the FAA, aircraft manufacturers, airlines and the Department
of Homeland Security to reduce fatal aircraft accident rates and
protect air travelers and the public from security threats.