J. DiPietro

An ever-growing awareness by both manufacturers and consumers has placed importance on the degree of Product Reliability and Product Responsibilities of goods being produced.

It is the principal objective of the Detroit Testing Laboratory to provide material and product evaluation, including unprejudiced and unbiased procedures with measurements traceable to the National Bureau of Standards. It is also our aim to provide standard measurements and engineering consolation related to product quality, and reliability, and allied fields, as well as the other services requiring professional assistance for the establishment and maintenance of performance.

Thomas Rust, Jr.

The work performed under this project involved the evaluation of flight recorder insulation arrangements relative to their ability to provide thermal protection for record tapes under conditions of crash fire. The evaluation encompassed fire testing four different types of insulation arrangements in accordance with three different time-temperature fire environments.

It was found that a combination of high-temperature insulation and a heat sink material employing water as the heat absorber provided the best protection for the record tapes when exposed to a realistic severe thermal environment.

Systems Research and Development Service

Civil Aeronautics Board Bureau of Safety Pamphlet No. 7-6-3, “A Study of United States Air Carrier Accidents Involving Fire, 1955-1964,” dated 30 March 1966, indicates that there were 13 accidents during this 10-year period where 297 of a total of 328 fatalities occurred as a direct result of fire and its effects and that all 297 fire fatalities would have survived had fire not occurred. From this group of 13 accidents (10 piston, 3 turbine), 342 of the 670 occupants survived.

Five recent survivable air carrier accidents involving fire resulted in 181 fatalities among 430 occupants for a fatality rate of 42%. The NTSB investigation of the Convair 580 accident at New Haven, Conn., 7 June 1971, revealed that 27 of the 28 fatalities survived the initial impact and were caused by fire, smoke and explosions. Forty-seven of 229 occupants abroad the DC-8-63 involved in a takeoff accident at Anchorage, Alaska, on 27 November 1968, received fatal injuries from post-crash fire and explosion.

From 1964-1969, there were 135 helicopter accidents where fire occurred of which 45% were fatal compared to 28% of the non-fire accidents.

On the basis of approximate aircraft value estimates, hull losses due to fire damage in 1969 were $19.5 million for air carrier aircraft. As larger transports are incorporated in the air carrier fleet, the number of lives exposed to fatal injury by post crash fire following survivable crash is significantly increased.

Lawrence Neri

The purpose of this effort was to compare the firefighting effectiveness of AFFF in extinguishing neat and modified Jet A turbine fuel fires.

J.F. Marcy, Eldon Nichols

A test program was conducted to determine the degrees of flammability in relation to existing federal standards for clothing and cabin interior materials of a stewardess uniform involved in an Air Carrier accident.