Guidance for Advanced Fire Suppression in Aircraft

Abstract

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Next Generation Fire Suppression Program (NGP) was born of necessity. Atmospheric science had made it clear that fully halogenated compounds containing chlorine or bromine posed a threat to the earth’s ozone layer. An extensive, multi-year search by the DoD found that the best commercially available alternative to halon 1301, CF₃Br, for fire suppression in aircraft carried significant weight and storage volume penalties. In 1997, the NGP began, with an objective that evolved to “develop and demonstrate technology for economically feasible, environmentally acceptable and user-safe processes, techniques, and fluids that meet the operational requirements currently satisfied by halon 1301 systems in aircraft.” Ten years later, the NGP has revitalized the science of fire suppression. There have been advances in delivery of a flame extinguishing chemical to a fire, knowledge of chemical interactions with flames (and limitations to the effectiveness of such chemicals), screening of a large number of chemicals as potential fire suppressants, identification of the properties of fluids that make for effective and safe fire suppression, identification of effective fire suppressant chemicals, engineering of non-fluid suppression systems for improved effectiveness and efficiency, and evaluation of the true cost of a new fire suppression system. The final report of the NGP will be available in book form and on CD this autumn. See the NGP web site (http://www.bfrl.nist.gov/866/NGP) for ordering information.