CRASHWORTHY FUEL TANKS: How We Got Where We Are and Where We Should Go From Here

Over the past seventy-five years much effort has been directed toward determining the causes of aircraft post-crash fires and practical solutions to prevent their occurrence. While significant research effort has been directed toward fuel lines, valves, fittings and other fuel system components, a primary area of concentration has been the prevention of dangerous fuel spillage from the fuel bladder. This technical paper is a compilation and summary of research efforts to eliminate dangerous fuel spillage from ruptured fuel bladders in crashes up to the limits of human survivability. This paper focuses on research conducted by the AvSER Division of the Flight Safety Foundation and its successors. This extensive AvSER research program, funded by the U.S. Army beginning in 1960, spanned a 14 year period, and yielded data that helped define fuel bladders capable of safely containing their contents in upper level survivable crashes. This data was generated from hundreds of dynamic tests which led to the issuance of MIL-T-27422B in 1970. Since its adoption by the U.S. Army, dangerous fuel spillage in upper level survivable helicopter crashes has essentially been eliminated, and thermal injuries and deaths have been reduced almost to zero.