I was browsing the site below about a new training aircraft, and I noted it seems to come with foam inserts to the fuel tanks.
http://elixir-aircraft.com/en/the-elixir/training.html
In a previous work role, I dealt with retrofitting a whole fleet of military aircraft with Explosive Suppressant Foam (ESF). I think this is the first time I’ve seen it in a light aircraft fuel tank – I don’t know if it more common though? Anyone have experience of it being fitted in GA fuel tanks?
Interesting.
Is this to prevent a fire from a bullet or shrapnel, or does it contain a spillage too in the event of a crash followed by a fuel tank rupture?
I remember reading about race/rally car fuel tanks being filled with reticulated foam back in the 70s.
@peter as I remember things, in the event of a spark initiation (e.g crash or electrical arcing or of course shrapnel) the ullage (fuel air mixture) will ignite and the flame front with flash over in an explosion, with ESF the flame front propagation is inhibited so the explosion is locally contained.
LeSving wrote:
can in principle be used on any aircraft
that doesn’t use MoGas or have a float in the tank. But interesting.
Another variation…
That mesh is just like the old safety lamps used centuries ago in coal mining.
