Integrated Fire and Overheat Detection System for Manned Flight Vehicles

The report describes the design of a computer for use in a unique integrated system for detecting fire and overheat in aircraft engine nacelles. This system uses ultraviolet and infrared sensors for fire detection, continuous elements for overheat detection, and the newly designed microcircuit computer for sensor analysis. The computer, operating in any of five modes -- Normal, Emergency, Ultraviolet, Infrared, or Continuous -- activates a specially designed alpha-numeric readout. Computer design criteria are firmly established, and the finalized two-channel, fail-safe, self-checking computer design is described. Boolean equations and a final schematic for the computer are given. Finally, the limitations of applying the computer from both an engineering and a legislative point of view are specified. A final flight-qualified microcircuit computer weighing 6 ounces or less, 12 in. by 2 in. by 5 in. in size, and drawing less than 1 watt of power can be built using the basic computer design formulated.