A timely course on the subject of aircraft fires and explosions is being offered April 6-8 by BlazeTech Corp. of Woburn, Mass. This is an in-depth, engineering oriented course, advises Albert Moussa, founder of BlazeTech who also is one of the instructors. Moussa suggests three factors make this course particularly timely:

• New fire test requirements adopted by the Federal Aviation Administration for thermal acoustic insulation materials.
• Man portable air defense systems (MANPADS) and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are considered critical threats by the Department of Homeland Security.
• Recent breakthroughs in fuel tank inerting that can impact SFAR 88 (Special Federal Aviation Regulation 88, Fuel Tank System Design Review).

The course is oriented to persons involved in design, operation, maintenance, and testing and management of fire and explosion safety, to include combustible fluid, material specifications, detection and suppression systems, bomb threats, vulnerability/survivability, accident investigation or risk analysis. Two aspects of the course outline stand out: hidden and electrical fires, and the effects of clutter on the effectiveness of suppression agents. Details are at the link below.

>> Moussa, e-mail amoussa@blazetech.com, see also http://www.blazetech.com/Course_Listings/Aircraft_Fire _and_Explosions_Course/aircraft_fire_and_explosions_course.html <<