On Sep 18, 10:46 pm, "Dan Luke" wrote:
"Andrew Sarangan" wrote:
I have personally witnessed the post-crash fire of an experimental
Velocity. When the fire was out, there was nothing left on the ground
except some metal parts from the wheels, avionics and control links.

IOW, about the same as what's left of a burned out aluminum airplane.

I have only seen photos of metal airplane crashes, and in most cases
you can tell that it was an airplane crash. Many tell tale parts of
the airplane will remain intact. In this case you would not have known
that this was an airplane crash. There were no discernible parts.
Aluminum melts around 650C. Fiberglass epoxy will turn into a gel at
a far lower temperature, around 100C. Most fiberglass airplanes can't
even withstand normal heat from the sun unless they are painted
white. So the fact that the glass airplane simply vaporized in the
fire makes sense to me.

In any case, my observations are only anectodal, and are based on
homebuilt aircraft. Boeing may be using advanced epoxies with superior
thermal and mechanical properties. If that is the case, it would be
trivial for them to put these concerns to rest. I hope that is indeed
the case, and that the 787 is not built with the same epoxy I am using
on my homebuilt.