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Smoke Detection/Fire Extinguishing Class D Cargo

In response to the FAA release of its Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM), Kidde Aerospace and Defense created an off the shelf Class D cargo fire protection system to aid airlines and aircraft manufacturers in compliance.

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A typical KAD cargo fire protection retrofit kit consists of the following equipment
  • Dual Loop Photoelectric Smoke Detectors
  • Cockpit Panel, Cargo Smoke Detection
  • Cockpit Panel, Cargo Fire Extinguishing
  • Cargo Electronics Unit
  • Extinguisher, Fire Knock Down
  • Extinguisher, Fire Inerting
  • Cockpit Cargo Fire Annunciators

The FAA has released its Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM). The effective date for the final rule is January 1998; all affected airplanes must be in compliance by January 2001 (3 years).

The KAD team is proposing an off the shelf package, designed in conjunction with a major U.S. airline and with beneficial inputs from a number of airlines and aircraft manufacturers. This system is currently completing component qualification and system or STC certification on 727, 737, MD 80/DC 9 and L 1011 aircraft and full scale production will begin summer 1997. The system is modular and can be adapted for any aircraft type or configuration.

For our off the shelf Class D cargo fire protection system, KAD worked very closely with a major U.S. Airline to: 1) Identify the design requirements (e.g. reliability, dispatchability, compliance with FAA requirements, and ease of retrofit); 2) Define a complete aircraft Bill of Materials; 3) Perform testing to show compliance; and 4) Obtain the necessary approvals.

 Design guidance was also sought from a number of other airlines and aircraft manufacturers. This process has taken approximately 9 months of effort by a very pro active KA design team working with our team member airline and an extremely responsive FAA Certification Office. KAD has already gone through the various design iterations, lessons learned and testing anomalies that have resulted in the system we are now fielding.

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