AC Ovee
Is that practical ?
Air Safety Week,
April 19, 1999 Inert gas generators
According to Bill Leach,
fire protection team leader for the Naval Air System Command, an inert gas generating system has been developed with potential application to commercial airliners. "An air bag without the bag is effectively what we have," he said. When an air bag is activated, the chemical reaction produces a large volume of nitrogen gas almost instantaneously.
Metal canisters, filled with the same chemicals, with holes predrilled to exhaust the gas and with electrically-activated initiators, have been placed in the
dry bays of Navy F-18 fighter-bombers and V-22 tilt-rotor aircraft to provide
near-instant fire protection.
In the dry bay forward of the engines on the F-18, for example, six generators, two optical sensors and a "smart control box" provide fire protection with a two millisecond reaction time. Since the generators produce a great deal of inert gas very quickly, they are activated in a carefully-timed sequence to corral fires while avoiding overpressures that would distort the aircraft structure.
A similar system installed in the mid- and trailing area of the wing is credited with saving a V-22 which recently experienced a hydraulic fire.
The technology, Leach believes, can be exploited to deal with the
polyimide fire threat in commercial aircraft. "We have taken the concept from the commercial automobile industry, applied it to military aircraft, and we have an opportunity to go full circle back to commercial aircraft," Leach said.
The added weight is marginal. "You can almost describe this system as prepositioned fire extinguishers," since bottles and lines are avoided, Leach added.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...13/ai_54428998