Fire extinguishment system for an aircraft passenger cabin

Claim 1

In combination, an aircraft having a passenger carrying compartment and an environmental control system for providing conditioned air to said compartment, said environmental control system being characterized in that it includes means for producing conditioned air from engine bleed air, and further includes first, second and third ceiling ducts operable to communicate said conditioned air into said compartment, wherein said first duct is positioned overheadedly in at least a forward portion of said compartment to provide conditioned air thereto, and said second duct is positioned overheadedly in at least a central portion of said compartment to provide conditioned air thereto, and said third duct is positioned overheadedly in at least a rearward portion of said compartment to provide conditioned air thereto, said environmental control system being further characterized in that said environmental control system is operable to selectively provide conditioned air to preselected compartment portions by controlling the flow of conditioned air in said ducts independently each from the other, and operable to control the rate of conditioned air flow from each duct into said duct's respective underlying compartment portion, said aircraft further having a cargo carrying compartment that is separate from said passenger carrying compartment, and a bromotrifluoromethane fire extinguishment system in said cargo compartment, said fire extinguishment system being characterized in that it includes at least one container for holding bromotrifluoromethane, and that it further includes means for communicating said bromotrifluoromethane from said container into said cargo compartment, and further including fire extinguishment duct means interconnecting said fire extinguishment system and said environmental control system, for communicating bromotrifluoromethane from said fire extinguishment system into said first, second and third ceiling ducts, to further communicate said bromotrifluoromethane respectively into said forward, central and rearward portions of said passenger carrying compartment, wherein said fire extinguishment duct means is operable in a manner so as to communicate bromotrifluoromethane into any one of said ducts at any one particular time, and wherein said environmental control system controls the flow of conditioned air in said ducts cooperatively with the flow of bromotrifluoromethane into said ducts, so that the amount of bromotrifluoromethane introduced into said passenger carrying compartment is insufficient to cause human injury.