Hello David,

Although the Global Flyer took this concept to extremes, one must remember
that sitting in the average airliner isn't all that far from sitting in a
big fuel tank. The wings are full of it, not to mention various other tanks!
I guess people just don't think about that too much, particularly the
nervous flyers :-)



That is true. Even in a regular pickup truck you may be literally
sitting above 40 Gallons of gasoline. One side impact can send that off
into a huge blaze. With nervous flyers it might be best not to talk
about this stuff when sitting next to them. They'd only become more nervous.

Then there are a couple huge engines hanging under the fuel filled
wings. And occasionally one of these goes kaputt. That happened when I
was a passenger on a flight while still over the atlantic, leaving only
one engine to fly on. I believe that the maintenance crew also had to
massage all those clenched armrests back into shape after the landing.
But at least nobody freaked out and despite the uneven thrust the pilot
almost made the landing a perfect greaser. That must have been a white
knuckle event.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com