Lithium Ion battery for aircraft

[N601RX]

I came across this on Concords website.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out.  It will not be a direct replacement and will require some additional equipment. The trick will be keeping the price reasonable. It could possibly be 15lbs or so lighter.

 

http://www.concordebattery.com/lion.php

 

[N177MC]

Bleeding edge techno - Did you hear about the fire on a 1 month old Dreamliner at Logan earlier this week ?

 

Apparently it was a lithium-ion battery that is used to start the APU, if my info is correct.

[flyboy0681]

I hate all the press the 787 has been getting. No aircraft placed into initial service has had 100% dispatch reliability. The 747 was plagued with a lot of problems when introduced into service in January, 1970, including Pan Am's delay of it's inaugural flight from JFK to London due to engine overheating.

 

The media is just looking to stir the pot.

[N177MC]

The media is just looking to stir the pot.

 

It's called sensationalism !

[Rwsavory]

Looks like it's a replacement for ni-cad's, not our "lowly" lead/acid types.  If Boeing couldn't keep theirs from catching fire that's not a good sign.      

[Rwsavory]

 

[N601RX]

The article said lead acid and ni-cads.  I've been involved in the development of a couple of commercial systems at work that uses Lithium technology.  The charging has to be very closely monitored and controlled.  At the very least it would require a special voltage regulator with a lot of intelligence built into it.

[jetdriven]

When I flew the Beech 1900D they had a STC to remove the NiCad batteries and replace them with lead-acid batteries. They had one thermally runaway, melt out the wing battery box, and drop onto the ramp.  After that, the extra 10 pounds the lead-acid battery weighed didn't matter so much.

 

Two 747-400 freighters were lost last year due to a pallet of litihium batteries overheating and catching fire.