It was too late to save the lives of American astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee, whose Apollo module burst into flames on a Cape Canaveral launchpad during a test.
But once investigators traced the blame for the blaze in 1967 to excessive flammable materials in the cramped quarters, among various factors, St. Paul's David "Al" Stivers and others were directed to ensure that such a tragedy never happen again.
Stivers, a longtime chemical engineer for 3M whose work led to the creation of lifesaving fire-resistant aircraft seats, died April 8 of natural causes. He was 88.
Stivers' collaboration earned him and his colleagues induction into the Space Technology Hall of Fame in 1996. Their innovation "saves 20 to 25 lives each year with all the major domestic airlines, as well as a large number of international carriers, now using this technology," the Space Foundation said at the time it bestowed the honor in a medal-draping ceremony in Colorado Springs.
"Anytime you fly on an aircraft now" passengers are being protected by this material, said John Keating, a fellow 3M scientist who was among the inductees. "You used to have five minutes max" to be spared from the flames, Keating said. "Now you have about 15, depending on where the fire is in the aircraft."
After the Apollo accident, the assignment quickly came from NASA for Stivers, Keating and others to prevent the polyurethane foam in the seats from igniting.
Keating said he and Stivers needed to make a fire-resistant, rubberlike material, "so that if there was a spark, it wouldn't cause a fire."
About 18 months later, Keating said, they had a solvent that could be sprayed, would dry and stand up to testing.
