Aerospace Industries Association of America

The information contained in the report is the property of the Aerospace Industries Association of America, Inc. Its use or dissemination without the written approval of the Aerospace Industries Association of America, Inc. is expressly forbidden.

Aerospace Industries Association Of America, Inc.

This report is one of seven prepared by the Aerospace Industries Association of America, Inc. (AIA), to report the Association's Crashworthiness Development Program.

Aerospace Industries Association

This report summarizes over 1 year of technical work accomplished by participants in the AIA Crashworthiness Development Program. It provides the most significant results obtained and conclusions dram from analysis and test work on interior materials, fire suppression and smoke and fume protection, emergency lighting and exit awareness. It also illustrates the scope of the program and identifies those technical and test resulted in the recommended changes to Federal Aviation Regulations described in report AIA CDP-RC.

Joseph M. Kuchta

Many fatalities that have occurred in aircraft crashes during take-off or landing have been attributed to the fire and smoke produced following ignition of fue1 dispersed from ruptured fuel tanks. In an effort to reduce the crash fire hazard, the Federal Aviation Agency sponsored a research program in 1964 to determine the feasibility of using thickened fuels in aircraft. Results of this program indicated that the potential fire or flammability hazard is greatly reduced for aircraft fuels containing 1.5 weight percent of CHBA or FAA 1069-1 gelling agent (N-"coco"- hydroxybutyramide) .Although these results were obtained under small-sale simulated crash conditions, similar results were found by the Federal Aviation Agency under full-scale simulated conditions. Other work, particularly that sponsored by the Army, has led to the development of fuel emulsions that also appear promising as "controlled flammability fuels" for aircraft. In the present work the Bureau of Mines was requested by the FAA to develop a method of rating the potential crash fire hazard of gelled and emulsified fuels. The rating system described in this report is applicable primarily to hydrocarbon-type aircraft fuels. Test methods for determining the fuel properties used in the rating system are described in the appendix.

John F. Marcy, Richard Johnson

A study was made of the burning characteristics of some 140 different material for the purpose of obtaining technical data and criteria needed to support current efforts to improve existing Federal Air Regulations governing the use of cabin interior materials in aviation.

Comparative tests were conducted on two groups of materials; one consisting of materials now in use in air transport, and the second materials proposed for future use with superior fire resistance. Measurements were made of ignition time, burn and char lengths, flame-out time, burn rate, heat of combustion, flame-spread index, etc. Two standard laboratory test methods were employed; namely, (1) Federal Standard CCC-T-19Ib, Test Method 5902, Results of the tests were analyzed to indicate major flammability trends for different material classifications. Practical allowable flammability limits based on available materials technology were recommended for increasing the present fire protection requirements of interior materials.