PASSENGERS caught in aircraft fires at any of the world's airports
could have a vital extra three minutes to escape if the aircraft had
been lined with a fire-resistant carbon fibre blanket that has been
developed at a factory in Muir of Ord.
Yesterday, RK Carbon Fibres, which came to Ross-shire 15 years ago,
launched a #3m expansion programme thatwill increase the workforce to
120. RK has captured 80% of the worldwide market in carbon fibre for
aircraft brake discs including Concorde's, its fibres are used in the
nozzle of the Ariane space rocket, and its turnover is set to rise this
year from #6.1m to #7.3m.
RK managing director Mr Colin Hill said that its operation would grow
two or threefold if research into fire safety on aircraft supported the
use of the RK carbon fibre blanket.
''The Federal Aviation Authority in America and the Civil Aviation
Authority in this country are examining what happens to aircraft in
simulated fuel fires,'' he said. ''These tests show that it takes just
35 seconds for the aluminium fuselage to burn through. If our fire
resistant material is used, we gain several minutes.''
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article