Aircraft Emergency Fuel Discharge Device
From PDI
Contents |
Preface
In the unfortunate event of an airplane crash, one of the serious dangers threatening passengers' lives is the imminent fire that eventually develops due to the contact of hot engine parts, sparkling wires, or some other ignition source with spilled jet fuel. That is especially dangerous in the event of crash on take-off since the amount of fuel in the aircraft's tanks at that moment is particularly high.
Problems with existing designs
During the slowly developing emergencies, pilots usually have enough time to circle the airport a few times, dumping the fuel from the tanks in a controlled manner. Unfortunately, some classes of emergencies develop way too fast, thus allowing no time for that approach; one such example was Air France Flight 4590 (a.k.a. the Concorde crash) in 2000.
Once the aircraft comes in contact with the ground, it is already way too late to dump the fuel. Upon the contact, the airplane starts slowing down due to the friction; the mass of fuel in the fuel tanks, however, as per Newton's First Law of Motion, retains it's speed, only retained in place by the front walls of the fuel tanks, and jetting forwards readily as soon as their structural integrity is compromised, as can be seen in this video. Effectively, the airplane ends up riding into the cloud of pulverized fuel moving ahead of it, ready to be ignited.
The solution to this problem seems to be rapidly dumping the fuel while the aircraft is still airborne at sufficiently low altitude where engine power is no longer paramount. Rapidly discharged fuel would then be slowed down by the air resistance and fall onto the ground behind the airplane which is still supported by its wing lift, and falls slower than the mass of fuel does, thus increasing the distance between the fuel and itself.
Claims
- An airplane rapid fuel discharge system capable of discharging most of the aircraft's fuel load in a matter of seconds;
- An airplane rapid fuel discharge system as claimed in claim 1 utilizing fuel storage tanks or compartments capable of emergency jettisoning;
- An airplane rapid fuel discharge system as claimed in claim 1 utilizing fuel storage tanks or compartments capable of emergency controlled rupturing;
- An airplane rapid fuel discharge system as claimed in claim 1, paired with the standard aircraft ground proximity sensing/warning system, capable of automatic engaging in case of predicted imminent ground impact, present along with other emergency indicators (gear being up, additional emergency signals activated in the cabin, etc.)
In layman's terms
Proposed is the emergency system that can rapidly discard large amounts of fuel on very short notice, including by not limited to:
- By jettisoning the entire fuel tank;
- By generating an excessive pressure inside the tank causing its massive rupture along a pre-weakened rear-facing seam (think airbag type of pressurization)
