Goodrich Company, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, and U. Naval Proving Ground at Dahlgren, VA, began testing fuel tank designs provided by each of the four largest rubber manufactures at the time: Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, B. These innovations coincided with a rise in the demand for rubber materials in commercial and military applications leading up to World War II. The inception of effective self-sealing technology was enabled by advances in rubber material processing. This article reviews self-sealing fuel containment technology from its inception through select examples of modern advanced designs. However, over the last decade, during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, there has been a renewed effort to improve self-sealing fuel containment technology. The fundamental elements, including the self-sealing mechanism, are largely unchanged.
And some designs that resulted from this effort can still be seen in the fuel tanks of today’s military aircraft. Īlthough the earliest iterations of self-sealing fuel containment date back to World War I, it was not until a concerted effort started in the late 1930s that a truly effective and reliable self-sealing design was established. One significant component that was largely responsible for this leap in survivability (and that is so commonplace in aircraft today that it is often taken for granted) is the self-sealing fuel tank. Stories abound of World War II pilots returning with aircraft so thoroughly perforated by enemy gunfire that they had to be scrapped after landing safely. The new generation avoided enemy fire by flying higher and faster, and it also survived combat damage far more effectively. By World War II, however, aircraft technology had become far more advanced in virtually every way. The grim nickname was a reflection of aircraft technology that was previously untested in combat and barely a decade old. Pilots of World War I often called the aircraft they operated “flying coffins” (as shown in Figure 1).
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