SNS3Guppy
Nobody is going to re-engineer the B747. It doesn't need to be done. There are other ways to address the matter.
With all respect due your experience in type and in structural fire fighting:
- Be careful your mindset does not become part of the problem. Preventing fires is important, Retarding fires is important, Controlling internal heat build up is important, but there will be more fires aboard aircraft, of that you can be sure.
- You might be surprised what kind of prompt re-engineering of the airflow in the cockpit can be done quite simply with a few meters of linear shaped charge. The closer we get to an open cockpit, the better in a heavy smoke situation. (Might need your long underwear though)
The B744 in question wasn't carrying passengers; it was carrying cargo. Between hazmat and the amount of cargo being carried, there's a lot more potential and capability for a fire, as well as a lot more packaged fuel.
Agreed that cargo aircraft have considerably more potential fuel onboard. We have also lost passenger aircraft to smoke so the problem is not unique to cargo aircraft. Almost all cargo aircraft started on the drawing board as passenger aircraft. If the smoke removal system can't handle the job in real life, the design standards are out of whack. We can either put bandaids on the problem or we can put solutions into effect. A blinded crew is a disabled crew. It is time to get serious about smoke removal.