Navy Awards Multi-year Contract To Skyhaven Systems To Develop An Aircraft Fuel Tank Inerting System
August 11, 2011 – The US Navy awarded a multi-year contract to Skyhaven Systems, LLC to continue its development work toward an inert gas generation system for Navy aircraft fuel tanks. The military desires a multi-tank fuel inerting system to protect the craft from ballistic fire and accidental fires. Traditional systems have used either stored suppressants that are often heavy, costly, and create logistical resupply challenges or systems that produce an inert gas such as an on-board inert gas generating system that can generate an inert gas to fill the ullage during flights. The Navy desires an improved inerting system that can support multiple independent fuel tanks that does not use engine bleed air, uses a minimum of electrical power, and that can reduce the oxygen content in the tanks to less than 9% by volume. Skyhaven Systems has previously shown the Navy a new inerting technology that can operate with multiple independent fuel tanks for Navy aircraft, in particular the V-22. Applications of Skyhaven’s inert gas generation system to commercial aircraft are also feasible in that commercial aircraft manufacturers are considering adding inert gas generators to their fuel tanks to prevent explosions that have been the cause of some accidents.