Thursday - June 16, 2011

Blimp Crash Update

An explosion on a blimp that killed its Australian pilot in Germany was caused by leaking fuel, crash investigators say.
...
Wreckage from the blimp, called The Spirit of Safety, had been sent to the offices of the German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation, daily newspaper Wetterauer Zeitung reported.

A spokesman for the investigator, Klaus Himmler, said the final report into the crash would be completed in four to eight weeks.
...
Joachim Storch, a photographer and one of the journalists who jumped from the blimp, said it had missed its designated landing spot and its engine smashed into the ground.

He told the DAPD news agency that Mr Nerandzic yelled “We had an accident!” and “I crashed the airship!” as fire spread through the blimp.

I have no idea what kind of safety systems are built into blimps. They are all certified by the FAA or whatever flying boards the countries they operate in have. Given the rather limited lifting ability of a blimp, any firefighting system would have to be quite lightweight, which might imply minimal effectiveness. But given that the fuel tank resides in the bottom of the envelope, above the gondola, if I had to design such a system I’d put in a servo valve on the fuel lines at the tank and another one at each engine. Even with a 1/2” fuel line, such servos only weigh a few ounces. I’d put a fireproof wrapper around a flexible fuel line going into the engines, so that the lines could flex several feet on impact without shearing, plus resist burn-through for several minutes. I’d add some kind of flame resistant coating to the underside of the envelope within 10-15 feet of the gondola, and more of that on the fuel tank itself. If possible I’d put in some kind of fire extinguisher system big enough to give the engines a 10 second blast. Hook the whole system up to impact switches on the engine struts and a panic button on the pilot’s instrument panel.

If I’m wrong about the gas tank location, and it resides under the gondola instead, then build it like one of those jet fighter pods with a quick release feature. Got a fire? Drop the tank. Put it on 100’ of rope so you don’t accidentally bomb people on the ground? Just get it far enough away to not add to the conflagration, then use whatever fire suppression systems you’ve got. Granted, this wouldn’t do much if the fire broke out when you were already at ground level.

Perhaps such systems are already in place. I don’t know. But if they are, they weren’t enough to do the job for this blimp.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/16/2011 at 10:00 AM   
Filed Under: • planes, trains, tanks, ships, machines, automobiles •  
• Comments (1) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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