Aircraft Fuel Systems

Aircraft fuel systems are designed to provide a continuous amount of clean fuel from the fuel tanks to the engine. There are two types of fuel pumps: the gravity-feed system and fuel-pump system. Just as it sounds, the gravity-feed system uses gravity to provide the fuel from the tanks to the engine. The fuel-pump system utilizes pressure from a pump to transfer fuel to the engine in aircraft that are not able to function with the gravity system. This system also serves as a redundant system to some gravity-fed aircraft systems (PHAK, 2016).

Like all aircraft systems, there are failures that can occur if the necessary precautions and maintenance procedures are not applied. Indications of failure in the fuel system can be identified by by a fuel smell in the cabin, lack of fuel flow or excess of fuel flow transferring to the engine, which may indicate a leak.

Fuel system failure or leaks can be caused by flexible materials becoming brittle and losing elasticity. Other fuel system parts can also lead to failure over time, including fuel bladders, fuel pump, and O-rings. Fuel system failure/leaks is a major issue not only because leaks reduce the amount of fuel available, but it also allows air or vapor to enter the fuel system. Fuel systems are made to function on liquid fuel only (Berry, 2017). 




The simplest and most effective strategy for mitigating fuel system errors is prevention. To prevent fuel pump system issues, it is critical to perform a preflight inspection by the book and checking for contamination in the fuel. Checking for any warped damaged hoses, bladders, fuel pumps, and O-rings will provide a visual indication of any contamination that needs to be addressed (Berry, 2017).

Word Count: 305

References

Berry, M. (2017, January). Fuel systems 101: most fuel-system accidents result from poor planning or   

 failure to understand how the aircraft's engine is supplied. Aviation Safety, 37(1),                       

8+. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A476571910/AONE?u=embry&sid=summon&xid=7cd7a9b1

 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). (2016). Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge (PHAK). Retrieved https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/phak/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Airport Cyberthreats

Image
  Cyberthreats originate from people or organizations that aim to disrupt travel and possibly cause injury or harm to those traveling. The threat begins with perpetrators locating a point of weakness in airport security. Cyberattacks can even be conducted from home, making it difficult to track and eliminate the source of the threat. Many airports are vulnerable to cyberattacks, especially airports that are not up to date on technology or airports in smaller, less economically stable countries. Most of the airport security is at the TSA line, and there are not security measures outside of the airport to protect it from attacks from the outside. Cyber attacks involving data breaches lead to at the very least, delays to flights and inconvenienced travelers, to more chaotic situations like compromised accounts of travelers and stolen identities. (Willemsen et al., 2018). Specific layers of TSA security that can mitigate cyber threats are intelligence and behavior detection. Intellig...
Read more