Problems and History
Da Vinci aircraft [9]
The problems of fire on aircraft, and the history of fire on aircraft are combined into one section of the literature review as generally problems are highlighted best once this problem occurs in a real situation, as such this section should involve numerous case studies. It is important that this is a part of the literature review, as the problems of fire on aircraft needs to be understood before the criteria to judge extinguishing systems can be decided upon e.g. without this section there would be no way to determine if new extinguishing systems would be suitable for use on an aircraft. There are multiple questions which this section should answer:
- What are the locations and cause of fires on aircraft, and how common are fires in highly flammable mechanical areas?
- How often do fires occur on aircraft, how common are fatalities and injuries, and what do those injuries involve?
- What problems are caused due to smoke on an airplane, what measures are used in smoke control, and do suppression systems generally make the smoke worse?
- How serious are the problems caused due to no egress, and how long does it take for a plane to land?
- Are problems caused due to the aircraft being a pressurised environment?
- How difficult is detection on board an aircraft, are there many false alarms and what problems do false alarms cause?
- What would be the weight limitation of an extinguishing system and how serious would it be if that weight limit was exceeded?
- What are the economic and environmental restrictions on extinguishing systems; can toxic or harmful substances be used in uninhabited parts of the aircraft?