Evacuation slide
Federal Aviation Administration and EASA regulations require an approved method of escape on all aircraft exits where the floor is 6 feet (1.8 m) or more above the ground).
The first aircraft evacuation slide was developed and produced by Air Cruisers, founded by James F. Boyle, inventor of the World War II life vest, the "Mae West".
[4] Today Air Cruisers is part of Zodiac Aerospace and ultimately owned by Safran who are the world's largest provider of evacuation slides.
[5] Prior to inflatables, some passenger aircraft utilized canvas type slides which required the crew to undertake an extensive rigging procedure.
Previously life rafts were carried separately in the cabin and deployed manually by the crew after a water landing.
The new slide/raft design was put forward to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), by Jack Grant, Qantas operations safety superintendent.
A Type III inflatable ramp is a small platform that may be fitted to allow easy access from, for example, an over-wing wing exit door to an area of structure from where descent can be achieved either by a separate slide or by jumping, depending on the height.
A dual lane slide is one that is capable of carrying two parallel lines of evacuees and is typically used at the main doors on Widebody aircraft.
The procedure to use this exit may involve removing a plug-type pressure bulkhead, or a swing type door that leads directly to a walkway.
At wide doors typical on large aircraft these will be "dual lane" slides capable of carrying two parallel lines of evacuees.
Prior to departure (usually before engine startup), all the aircraft doors are placed into the armed (or automatic) mode by the cabin crew.
Should this also fail, standard operating procedures require the cabin crew to send passengers away from the door and to one that has a functioning escape slide.
An article in Time by Amanda Ripley, with the assistance of aviation safety expert Dan Johnson, compiled some tips on how to avoid injury and escape from a plane on an inflatable slide.
Their suggestions involved planning, exiting the aircraft and getting off the slide quickly, jumping, the correct body position and avoidance of clothing that could cause safety issues, such as spiked heels and pantyhose.
For large, wide body aircraft such as A380s and B747s a successful deployment is complete in about five to seven seconds, depending on conditions (such as temperature and winds).
The regulating valve mechanically meters out the gas at a pressure of roughly 300 to 600 pounds per square inch (20 to 41 atm) and a rate of about 4 cubic feet (0.11 m3) per minute.
A 750-cubic-inch (12.3-litre) gas cylinder can fill a slide with about 850 cu ft (24 m3) of air to a pressure of about 3 psi (0.20 atm) in about four to six seconds.
In the center, forward part of the pack, a multi-layered piece of heavy urethane or neoprene/nylon fabric, called the girt, is left hanging out to a length of about 2 ft (0.61 m).
At about the same time, a metal pin that holds the center of the Valise closed is also pulled, releasing a daisy chain and the two halves of the cover.
When the cover is released and the inflation system activated, the two aspirators come shooting out of the pack, gulping vast quantities of air and restrained only by the fabric tubes to which they are securely fastened.
All new evacuation slides are tested on a mock-up of an aircraft exit door and filmed prior to being certified as airworthy and delivered to a customer.
