PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Crashing and Burning
View Single Post
Old 4th Nov 2000, 09:33
  #3 (permalink)  
criticalmass
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Unhappy

I recall several years ago the Americans were working on "Anti-Misting Kerosene" and I still have a videotape of a remotely-controlled 707 being deliberately crashed onto a salt lake bed with steel cutters positioned to slice into the wing-tanks shortly after impact. The AMK was thicker and refused to turn into an aerosol when violently agitated (such as in a rupturing fuel-tank) but had to be converted back into less-viscous jet fuel by a "degrader" located in the wing-pod before being fed to the engine.

It seemed to be a successful test, in spite of the aircraft impacting slightly off the planned aiming-point and one engine and degrader being ruptured, spilling ordinary kerosene into the hot engine parts and causing a very spectacular fire. The AMK in the tanks burnt for a shortish period of time and instrumentation inside the fuselage showed the interior conditions to be survivable (for temperature) for several minutes (ignoring issues such as smoke, toxic fumes etc).

Of course, AMK costs more because of the special additive required to produce it, as well as the degraders necessary on each engine to convert it. In an industry as price-sensitive as airline travel, it comes as no surprise it hasn't been adopted. Perhaps there have been undisclosed developmental problems as well. Someone with more knowledge may care to augment/update this posting.