[scott7278]

So, nearly 11 years later we’re looking at ways to keep planes from blowing up on their own? This hasn’t concerned anybody before now? Hmmmm.

[Yo-Yo]

Actually, new aircraft such as the A380 and Boeing 787 will have onboard nitrogen generators to "inert" the empty tanks by filling the empty space above the fuel with nitrogen. These nitrogen generators, and the associated plumbing, are designed into the new aircraft from the start. The debate was over requiring inerting equipment to be retrofitted into existing airliners, which would run into the billions.

I still lean towards the "errant training missile" from an Aegis destroyer theory, however. The FAA tried and tried to get a 747 center fuel tank to explode using jet fuel, heat, and a spark, but couldn't. They ended up filling the tank with propane in order to duplicate the explosion.

Excerpt from the Sandia Labs final report

"Laboratory tests at Cal Tech suggested that the combustion behavior of heated gaseous Jet-A fuel-air mixtures can be replicated using a mixure of hydrogen-propane premixed with air. The choice of this simulant fuel-air mixture is based on reproducing bum rates and overpressures in laboratory-scaled vessels. The use of the simulant fuel bypasses the difficulties associated with heating liquid jet fuel, hence, the quarter-scale test apparatus required minimal external environmental control."