I'm sure the airlines, EPA, and everyone else would rather the fuel be
burnt as normal rather than dumped into the air and sea.


I heard that the environmental impact of dumping fuel is not as bad as
it might seem. As the volatile fuel is sprayed into the air it tends to
oxidize and the result is similar to burning it in the engine. I am not
too sure of this when considering the complex chemistry of turbofan
combustion in flight. From the combustion chamber, out the nozzle and
through the downwash behind the plane the combustion reaction
continues. Dumping fuel sprays it into turbulent air without the
initial combustion and expansion so it is likely much different. I was
a payload integration engineer in support of the NASA DC-8 (which had
the ability to dump of course) on the SUCCESS mission to fly planes
behind and around each other to sample the exhaust products and
characterize the chemistry. The pilots had to be careful not to get
caught in the tip vortex.

http://cloud1.arc.nasa.gov/success/d...60418.hil.html

In the above photo our engineering group installed the canoe sized
instrument fairing on the side of the plane just forward of the aft
service door. We also installed the pod under the forward fuselage. As
the elevator is tab powered and the fairing is in front of it, we were
crossing our fingers during the taxi test and flight test.

http://uap-www.nrl.navy.mil/dynamics...s2May1996.html

http://raf.atd.ucar.edu/~dcrogers/GRL/grl.html

http://cloud1.arc.nasa.gov/success/

James