John Marcy, E. Nichols, J. DeMaree

A study of the combustion characteristics of interior cabin materials was made to establish the relative fire hazards inherent in the use of such materials in passenger air transport.

Stanley Mohler

More than one hundred years ago Lord Tennyson prophesied “Saw the heavens filled with commerce, argosies of magic sails, pilots in the purple twilight dropping with costly Bales. He possibly did not foresee certain complications associated with such aerial commerce, particularly the “dropping down” with more than the usual drop force.

The “costly bales” which comprise the topic of this paper, are the soft protoplasmic masses encased within aircraft. The aim of emergency evacuation is to get these soft protoplasmic masses from the interior of a distressed aircraft to the exterior, without irreversible damage.

This paper will focus on what we term the human factor in emergency evacuation. Anything, which unduly impedes the processes of emergency evacuation, is deleterious and must be avoided. The word unduly is used because certain impediments, or “constraints”, are essential to an orderly evacuation. In the absence of constraints, utter chaos is generated, and, as was indicated in a recent survivable crash landing of a transport-type aircraft, tragedy may result. The evidence indicates that the loss of 77 lives in the conflagration which followed the survivable crash landing, resulted from the inability of the occupants to open the main door, possibly greatly aggravated by the pell-mell collection of the occupants against the door.

T.G. Lee

A method is described for the rapid in situ determination of the “thermal inertia for surface heating” (kpc product) of materials using a sensitive infrared detector. Experimental measurements are given of the effect of moisture content on the thermal inertia and on the surface flammability of selected cellulose materials conditioned to equilibrium at relative humidity's ranging from 0 – 99 percent. It is shown that (1) the thermal inertia of uncoated hardboard and fiberboard material can be represented s a linear function of its moisture content, (2) that if the appropriate thermal properties are used, the flame-spread factor is inversely proportional to thermal inertia, and (3) the unbroken surface film of coated materials results in a lower ignition sensitivity than that predicted on the basis of thermal inertia.

J.A. Wilson

Typical data on the combustibility of various building materials as measured by the heat release method are presented on the attached tale and graphs. These values were obtained using the Factory Mutual Construction Materials Calorimeter.

Milton Levy, Albert Levitt

The drive toward ever higher operating temperatures in Army weapon systems continues unabated since the thermal efficiency and effectiveness of such systems are proportional to their operating temperatures. In the case of missiles and rockets, advances in propellant technology and in system design have outstripped materials development, so that at the present time and in the foreseeable future, lack of suitable materials to resist the extremely high temperatures encountered in such systems is the primary barrier to their continued development. Two major problem areas are involved - internally in the propulsion system and externally on the nose cone and leading edges of aerodynamic control surfaces. Specific components include combustion chamber liners, nozzles, nose' cones, vanes, etc.