Enables the preservation of life, vehicles, and property
Our Powder Panels deliver extinguishing agent into a potential fire zone upon the impact of a ballistic projectile, uncontained engine debris, or other damaging hazards.
Support government and private industry
Easy to integrate and maintain
Design custom fire protection solutions
Enhanced Powder Panels (EPP)
Skyward has successfully developed, patented (US patent 6,948,567 B1), and licensed to a large aircraft manufacturer, a low-cost, lightweight fire protection device, the Enhanced Powder Panel (EPP). The EPP is passive (i.e., no wires, detectors, controllers, etc.) and easy to integrate and maintain. This device, which lines the walls of flammable fluid containers, passively stores and delivers fire extinguishing agent into a potential fire zone. EPPs have numerous potential applications, including combat military aircraft, ground vehicles, or watercraft, and commercial applications, including passenger vehicles and building fire protection. The EPP functions upon the impact of a ballistic projectile, fragmentation or shrapnel (e.g., improvised explosive device), or debris (e.g., uncontained engine blade release or ground foreign object debris), or a crash event, and almost instantly suppresses fire ignition to prevent an onboard fire.
Skyward’s EPP is a vast improvement over a traditional honeycomb powder panel, releasing up to 10 times as much fire extinguishing powder, with significantly enhanced powder dispersion and suspension. It mitigates fire potential within 200 milliseconds. It weighs less than 0.5 pound per square foot and is less than 0.1 inch thick.
Performance testing has been conducted under the Joint Aircraft Survivability Program (JASP) at the Air Force 704th Test Group’s Aerospace Vehicle Survivability Facility (AVSF) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, OH and at the Navy’s Weapons Survivability Laboratory at China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station, CA. Further live fire testing was successfully evaluated within the DoD Joint Live Fire (JLF) Test Program, validating the EPPs for: 1) a production-representative helicopter fuselage dry bay, 2) fixed-wing attack aircraft’s wing leading edge dry bay, and 3) mid-size cargo aircraft wing leading and trailing edge dry bays.
The EPP technology has reached a TRL 7-8. EPP production panels have been fabricated for integration into the CMV-22B Osprey aircraft, have successfully undergone Live Fire Test & Evaluation (LFT&E), and are currently being flight tested onboard the aircraft.
Skyward engineers can assist customers in designing a custom fire protection solution to address your unique application. Contact us today to get started.
