PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Japan runway crash marks test of how new carbon jets cope in a disaster
Old 10th Jan 2024, 18:42
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Germaine
 
Join Date: Sep 2022
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Fire Ingress

When comparing alluminium fuselage structure to composite, I would have thought one of the most important measures is how long it takes an external fire to breach an undamaged fuselage. I appreciate the fuselage of the A350 at Haneda may have been anything but undamaged, however, it seemed to stand up reasonably well to the extenal blaze. I am not in any particular composits vs alluminium camp here, although, to make a comparison with the Manchester 737 disaster in the 80's, it according to wiki, it would seem that fire burned through the fuselage in less than a minute, and last survivor was removed by fire crew after 5.5 minutes. However, this was a big fuel fed fire with the hot side into wind, so admittedly, a different scenario.
Disclaimer: lurking SLF here, no aircraft industry knowledge apart from a knowledge of what burning composite smells like having done ultrasonic bonding trial for the industry.
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