Tappers Dad,
Following your link above I am not sure how it arrived at the fact that Kapton wiring was implicated in the crash of two
Tornadoes. It could be sloppy writing but this statement occurs for the first time in the conclusion. Conventionally mention of the Tornado should be made in the body first.
However I am pasting some extracts from web searches.
The first shows that Kapton wiring was fitted to the Boeing Harrier GR5.
The second, from Hansard, refers to two incidents of electrical fires on GR5s. I suspect this is pre-labour spin and it is possible these were accidents or, in other words, crashes. The final extract refers to Harrier crashes.
I don't doubt the accuracy of your quote; I doubt the accuracy of your source.
<<The BAE Systems/Boeing Harrier II (GR5, GR7, and GR9 series) is a second generation vertical/short takeoff and landing (V/STOL) jet aircraft used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and, since 2006, the Royal Navy. It was developed from the earlier Hawker Siddeley Harrier and is very closely related to the US built AV-8B Harrier II. Both are primarily used for light attack or multi-role tasks, and are often operated from small aircraft carriers.
Pasted from <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BAE_Harrier_II>
<<Pasted from <http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199900/cmhansrd/vo991213/text/91213w07.htm>
13 Dec 1999 : Column: 24W
Mrs. Dunwoody: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many military aircraft have been grounded as a result of advice on the safety of Kapton wiring. [100925]
Mr. Spellar: None. However, following two instances of electrical fires on RAF Harrier aircraft in 1991, the Harrier GR5 and GR7 fleets were restricted to operational flying only for a short period. Subsequent investigation showed that the fires had occurred as a result of the mis-routeing of wires. Modifications were subsequently introduced to improve the electrical installation.
Kapton - the aromatic polyimide wiring insulation around the wire strands - has no place, he says, in passenger-carrying aircraft. He says that the main reason is that, in an electrical short, the wiring insulation chars to a conductive carbon residue and ignites like a dynamite fuse, affecting the whole wiring bundle (and therefore many disassociated systems).
<<Pasted from <http://www.vision.net.au/~apaterson/aviation/kapton_mangold.htm>
Although the United States Navy has banned Kapton and the insulation is no longer used by Boeing since 1992, the world's largest planemaker Airbus Industrie continue to use a version of it in their new planes. Even though the British CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) has forbidden the use of Kapton insulation in new aircraft designs, a loophole allows it to be used in current designs.
Despite ample warning about its dangers, the Royal Air Force took delivery of Kapton-wired Harrier GR5s. Two crashed because of the wire before the RAF embarked on a program to modify the use of Kapton in all the vulnerable parts of their planes.
British Airways admit they use Kapton widely in their aircraft, but that its use meets the requirements of regulatory authorities. Panorama understands, however, that British Airways was warned of the dangers of Kapton insulation and did make its concerns known to Boeing, its principal supplier. BA has declined to confirm or deny this.
Kapton insulation (a DuPont trade name, although their patent has now expired and they are no longer the sole manufacturers) seemed to be the dream wire insulation for commercial and military fleets in the 1970s and '80s. Wiring is like a plane's blood vessels, and the average big jet carries up to 250 kilometres of it. When the giant aircraft manufacturers were looking for something extremely light, tough and flame resistant they settled for Dupont's Kapton. Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, Lockheed and later Airbus Industrie all installed it in good faith in their models during the '70s and '80s. Today, 40 per cent of all planes still carry Kapton-insulated wiring.
Pasted from <http://www.vision.net.au/~apaterson/aviation/kapton_mangold.htm>