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The Airbus A380 will not feature fuel tank inerting, but rather a comprehensive effort to minimize ignition sources. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officials say the system safety assessments upon which the fuel system for the A380 is predicated, with the focus on ignition sources, is an incomplete approach.
"The special review under SFAR 88 shows that the system safety assessment doesn't work," an NTSB official said. He hastened to add that it is not believed the A380 "will be more vulnerable than any plane flying today," but he hoped that "new production would be harmonized" in terms of European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requirements. Here is where the failure to produce a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on this side of the Atlantic has now undercut the U.S. position. Last year, the FAA said a flammability reduction system (e.g., inerting) is being considered for the A380 and Boeing's new B787. At that time, FAA officials said they wanted to avoid surprises, and that manufacturers should plan on including the systems. The B787 will feature inerting, although regulatory requirements are evidently years away, if that.
As EASA notes, "Regulatory action to address both current and future aircraft fuel system certification standards has been proposed by FAA ... but this is not yet in place."
Moreover, "EASA is not aware of any Supplemental Type Certificates [STCs] already issued for nitrogen inerting systems." In other words, no requirement, no STCs, no mandate for inerting.
"Airbus will demonstrate that the ignition source prevention features are sufficient, in and of themselves, to meet the aircraft safety objectives considering a permanent flammable fuel tank environment," EASA declares. "Airbus will further demonstrate through its flammability assessment that it has further upgraded its safety level by...