From: Tom Speer <speer%do.edw@mhs.elan.af.mil>
Organization: 412th Test Wing / TSFF
Date: 18 Aug 96 20:13:37
References: 1
Followups: 1
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P. Wezeman wrote:
>...
> Are inert gases used in the fuel tanks of any present aircraft?
> ....
Yes, but it's more of a feature on military aircraft than civil aircraft.
For example, the C-17 has an onboard inert gas generating system (OBIGGS)
which essentailly filters the oxygen out of the air (bled from the
engines) and uses the resulting gas to fill the ullage space in the
tanks. The oxygen is dumped overboard. In principle, you could have
both onboard oxygen generating system (OBOGS) and IBIGGS from the same
system, but I don't know of any aircraft which does this. As I recall,
the C-17 IBIGGS is dual redundant, is neither small nor light, and had
teething problems in development. But it works OK now.
TS
