http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/06/12/prickly-poisonous-fire-the-plastic-airliner-horror/ now with extra source Sun, 12 Feb 2012 02:48:10 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/06/12/prickly-poisonous-fire-the-plastic-airliner-horror/#comment-4212 Alan Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000 #comment-4212 An interesting article from Ben Sandilands regarding the ATSB report of failure characteristics of composite aircraft, however the quoted sections of the report are factually dated particularly for the both the aircraft types mentioned - the A380 & B787. The composites used to manufacture the structural components, flight control surfaces, aerodynamic fairings, engine nacelles and the like have left the use of glass reinforcement behind. The advanced composites used are carbon fibre filaments that are both lighter with higher tensile strength capabilities.<br />Current wide body aircraft types in use by Australian airlines would be of more concern in regards to the high amounts of filiment glass fibres that are used widely in secondary structure components and system/payload components throughout the aircraft that would typically make up about 5% of the aircraft gross weight. <br />These components include all the insulation blankets that line the inside of the fuselage from the nose to the rear pressure bulkhead, cargo liner panels, the aircraft floor panels, water tanks and pneumatic duct insulation to name just a few of the items used inside the pressurized fuselage area of your garden variety Boeing 767 or 747-400 aircraft. <br />In a crash/fire situation aircraft of these vintages have an design criteria of being low smoke emission with the aim of allowing the passengers & crew to escape without being overcome by toxic smoke, however I would be more concerned in the event of a raging inferno - the expectation of micro-glass fibre particle release would be high.<br />Perhaps to avoid the accidential poisoning from the glass particulates, the Australian airlines will give all of us back in cattle class paper dust masks in their give-away-amenities pack especially since the last ATSB finding a few days back told us all that aircraft cabin air recirc filtration systems won't make us sick!<br />(Can picture the hosties showing us how to correctly put on your mask after tying the lifevest before leaping out of the burning wreck...)<br /><br /><br /> An interesting article from Ben Sandilands regarding the ATSB report of failure characteristics of composite aircraft, however the quoted sections of the report are factually dated particularly for the both the aircraft types mentioned - the A380 & B787. The composites used to manufacture the structural components, flight control surfaces, aerodynamic fairings, engine nacelles and the like have left the use of glass reinforcement behind. The advanced composites used are carbon fibre filaments that are both lighter with higher tensile strength capabilities.
Current wide body aircraft types in use by Australian airlines would be of more concern in regards to the high amounts of filiment glass fibres that are used widely in secondary structure components and system/payload components throughout the aircraft that would typically make up about 5% of the aircraft gross weight.
These components include all the insulation blankets that line the inside of the fuselage from the nose to the rear pressure bulkhead, cargo liner panels, the aircraft floor panels, water tanks and pneumatic duct insulation to name just a few of the items used inside the pressurized fuselage area of your garden variety Boeing 767 or 747-400 aircraft.
In a crash/fire situation aircraft of these vintages have an design criteria of being low smoke emission with the aim of allowing the passengers & crew to escape without being overcome by toxic smoke, however I would be more concerned in the event of a raging inferno - the expectation of micro-glass fibre particle release would be high.
Perhaps to avoid the accidential poisoning from the glass particulates, the Australian airlines will give all of us back in cattle class paper dust masks in their give-away-amenities pack especially since the last ATSB finding a few days back told us all that aircraft cabin air recirc filtration systems won’t make us sick!
(Can picture the hosties showing us how to correctly put on your mask after tying the lifevest before leaping out of the burning wreck…)

]]>