1. Progress in Fire Protection Research
NASA Glenn
Progress in Fire Protection Research
International Aircraft Systems Fire Protection Working Group Workshop
Atlantic City NJ November, 2003
Bob McKnight nasa.gov
Al Linne
Clarence Chang
Jennifer Xu

2. Organization- Accident Mitigation Project
Accident Mitigation Project Manager -- Bob McKnight
Fire Prevention Element Manager-Clarence Chang
Inerting/Oxygen Manager-Clarence Chang
Fire Safe Fuels Manager-Martin Rabinowitz
Cargo Fire Detection Manager- Gary Hunter
Advanced OBIGGS/OBOGS Fuel Tank Inerting
Elevated Flash Point Fuels / Flammability
Low False Alarm Fire Detection

3. Recent Accomplishments
Fuel Tank Inerting
Flight test planning JSC B-747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft
Valcor PH II -testing of small scale advanced high temp membrane
Honeywell PH II-identified high temp materials and solvents for advanced membrane manufacturing process
Security program planning
Flammability feed-back control sensors, algorithms
Participation in Air Force Large Aircraft Survivability Initiative (LASI)
Low False Alarm Fire Detection
Testing at NIST
Testing at Boeing Commercial
Proposal for hidden fire detecting and locating on technology
Elevated Flash-Point Fuels
Fuel modification concepts identified.

4. Security-Fuel Tank Inerting Background
Civil transport aircraft are now subject to what was once only a military threat –MANPADS and Small Arms (Man Portable Air Defense System)
Their proliferation has resulted in numerous shoot-downs and close-calls involving civil passenger aircraft.
From , 585 passengers and crewmembers of commercial transport aircraft died from MANPADS missile attacks. The attacks brought down 24 aircraft and severely damaged 10. (1) .
They have long reach to arriving/departing aircraft
Key to the threat is the difficulty of securing the 100 or more square miles of land surrounding civil airports. (2)
They use the fuel system against the aircraft
The explosion of a 2 lb MANPADS warhead or impact effects of small arms can induce a far larger explosion of fuel tanks. Moderate damage can be magnified to make the aircraft unflyable.
Countermeasures to throw off guidance systems are limited
Countermeasures can be defeated Small arms operate without automatic guidance
1. National MANPADS Workshop, Redstone Arsenal AL, 1998
2. “The Vexing Problem of Protecting Airliners from MANPADS” Aircraft Survivability Magazine, spring 2003
3. Aircraft Survivability Magazine, spring 2003
Figure 1. The five foot long Stinger is seen approaching the C–130 from the rear.(3)
Figure 2. The missile’s 2.2 pound warhead detonates inside the engine nacelle.(3)