Mon, Jan 15, 2007
Engine Placement Stymies Current Regulations
The FAA has proposed a set of special conditions the Aviation
Technology Group's upcoming Javelin 100 will have to meet prior to
the issuance of a Type Certification, due to the placement of the
aircraft's twin turbofan engines.
The reason? The FAA says current airworthiness regulations for
Part 23 aircraft do not contain adequate safety standards for the
side-by-side placement of the $2.795 million jet's Williams
engines, inside the aft fuselage like an F-15. Current regs assume
the engines are separated from each other on mounting attachments
to the fuselage or wing.
The agency is concerned with the possibility a fire in one
engine could spread to the other... as well as to a 280 gallon fuel
tank located forward of the engines, behind the cockpit. Critical
control linkages and the plane's horizontal and vertical
stabilizers are also nearby.
Current regulations also assume the engines will be in the
pilots' field of vision, and a fire in one would not prevent the
plane's pilot(s) from executing an emergency landing inside 15
minutes, before the flames break through the firewall. The FAA
questions whether that same margin of safety would apply to the
Javelin.
"Part 23 historically addressed fire protection on multiengine
airplanes based on the assumption that the engines are sufficiently
separated to essentially eliminate the possibility of an engine
fire spreading to another engine..." the FAA writes in its request
for comments on the proposed guidelines. "Title 14 CFR, part 23,
did not envision the type of configuration of the Javelin Model 100
airplane."
To overcome the possibility of an engine fire spreading in a
Javelin, the FAA proposes a "two-shot" fire extinguishing system,
that would include features to isolate each fire zone from any
other zone -- and the airplane -- to maintain isolation of the
engines during a fire.
The comment period for the proposed special guidelines runs
through February 7.
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