SAFETY IN THE AIR

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 103, 28 October 1933, Page 13

SAFETY IN THE AIR

INDUCTION FLAME TRAP

(From "The Post's" Representative.) j LONDON, September 16. | A possible cause of fire in the air is eliminated by the use of a clever •British '"flame trap" device which,i states the Aeronautical Research Committee in its annual report, has stood up to long periods of artificial backfiring on the test bench and has been flown for many hours without any sign of failure. More than a hundred test flights were made.The trap prevents backfires from the engine sending flames down tho .induction pipe. It consists of pieces of thin sheet metal which divide tho pipe into a large number of passages sufficiently small to cool and damp out any flame travelling along the pipe. Following tho successful test the committee has amended its , recommendation, mado some years ago, that,, because of the risk of fire, air intakes should preferably be placed outside tho body of an aeroplane; The committee now suggests that, if a satisfactory flame-trap be .fitted, the intakes, may safely be placed inside. Permission to place .the intakes inside the fuselage brings important advantages. Bisks of choking in snow or sand storms are obviated. Further, the engine appears to be more efficiently fed with fuel, when the traps are installed; general carburation is better, tho engine runs more smoothly, and there is a perceptible reduction in theamount of fuel consumed.