Airplane-mounted external fire detection system

A method, implemented in an aircraft-mounted external fire detection system, the method comprising:

• optically monitoring an exterior of an engine nacelle of an aircraft for a hydrocarbon fire by detecting radiation outside of the visible light spectrum using optical circuitry mounted on the aircraft forward of the engine nacelle;
• using the optical circuitry to determine that the fire has been continuously present for more than a threshold duration, and in response, transmitting a warning to an operator terminal of the aircraft.

A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program product for controlling a programmable aircraft-mounted external fire detection system, the computer program product comprising software instructions that, when executed on processing circuitry of the programmable aircraft-mounted external fire detection system, cause the processing circuitry to:

• use optical circuitry, mounted on an aircraft forward of an engine nacelle of the aircraft and configured to optically monitor an exterior of the engine nacelle for a hydrocarbon fire by detecting radiation outside of the visible light spectrum, to determine that the fire has been continuously present for more than a threshold duration;
• and
• transmit a warning to an operator terminal of the aircraft in response to the determination.