Another 787 Battery Fire?

They never should have moved their HQ to Chicago.

Someone will probably beat me up for saying this, but I think the problem with every engineering design/manufacturing company is; the CEOs are not degree'd engineers, and have never worked as an engineer in the company they are managing. They are smart, but 2 drink minimum MBA is not enough. Steve Jobs was directly involved in Apple, and he showed how to correctly drive a company, and it's products. William (Bill) Boeing, Donald Douglas, Henry Ford, to name a few, of past great companies, that had owner engineers at the helm. I know CEOs are "rain makers" but how do you fix a design culture problem, if you can't design.

Henry Ford was not an engineer per say. Smart man yes, but not schooled in engineering.

And I just watched a PBS program where they beat him up in court as being an ignorant man. He did not have an engineering degree.

Henry could look further than your engineer. He sent staff around the scrappies to find out what was worn out and broken on discarded vehicles. When he found that king pins were never broken or wornout, he directed that they should be made of weaker (cheaper) material, so they would wear out as the vehicle approached its life's end.

Sounds like a good time to buy Boeing stock.

The planes are fine; the new battery technology isn't quite ready for prime time. They'll fix it.

It sounds like common sense, but it also sounds like far too simple of an answer.

I don't know anything about these batteries, but could the reason for the insulation have anything to do with them not getting too cold?

BBC news link

It will be interesting to see how they repair this damage.

Exactly! that photo irks me. what could possibly be in the aft section of the fuselage there that would catch fire through ALUMINUM like that???

The picture is worth a thousand speculations. I mean the aluminum has bloody melted right off! what equipment is located THERE?

CORRECTION: it's not aluminum, but carbon composite. mea culpa.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/13/business/boeing-787-catches-fire-at-heathrow.html?pagewanted=2&_r=0

Isn't the generator in the tail? It is for many modern civil aircraft.

yes it seems you are correct based on link from my below comment,...also THE ELECTRIC GALLEY/KITCHEN!

A huge power load there too!

take a gander at this picture:

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/elon-musk-boeing-787-battery-fundamentally-unsafe-381627/

it seems to be pointing by chance to the EXACT location of the Ethiopian Air fire!!!

(though I can't fathom a "cargo door" being there......) very curious.

While I am not in the caliber to be in the same room with those men, mentioned in that article. But that generally is part of what I was trying to get across. I also wrote a response to post #9 that has become a part of cyber space.

It is sufficient to say all LiFe batteries are not equal. LiFePO4 are safer and just a tad less compact in the power density range. The batteries they use are bricks of heat producing chemicals packed tightly together that will create heat, when charged, or discharged, at a high C rate, and without a chance to release that heat, they will autocombust. They require a way to get rid of that excess heat. Insulation and confined space that cannot breathe, is hardly that way. Ventilation and planned space to allow for air passage around the cells, will help a lot.

Better control of charging and maintaining equal voltage among all the cells while charging is another whole issue. This must be addressed.

We use these cells in clusters or packs that make up 12-24 or 48 volt units of anywhere from 60 to 100+ Amp hours, depending on space available.