Fire testing in the Boeing 707 cabin section

The goal of a FIREMEN funded contract is the definition of a laboratory test method ranking airplane interior materials by probable performance in post-crash and in-flight fires. A major task is the relation of laboratory results to full scale data. A large test facility for testing materials to the thermal threat of fuel fed and interior fires was developed with quartz lamps and a propane burner in a twenty foot fuselage section. A method was developed to analyze full scale data for the apparent heat, smoke and toxicant release rates of the material tested.