Since Kitty Hawk, the fear of fire in a fuel tank has haunted airplane pilots and manufacturers. Armor plate and pumping systems for getting inert gas into the waste space in fuel tanks have both been tried. Neither method has ever been completely satisfactory. Last week, at Britain's Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, R.A.F. officers learned that a planned explosion, set off at just the right time, may prove to be the best way to prevent an accidental explosion from getting out of hand.
This explosion-to-prevent-an-explosion is the unexpected byproduct of research conducted by a pair of English chemists, W. G. Glendinning...
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