Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by fab13n 3381 days ago
> The thought of a Li fire on board an aircraft is something that would keep me awake nights.

Whereas you wouldn't think twice about jet fuel fires, because you're used to it rather than because fuel isn't a fire hazard :-)

2 comments

Jet fuel isn't very flammable unless it's atomized or vaporized, something which only happens in the engine. And it's pretty straightforward to extinguish an engine fire, and all aircraft engines have systems to do this.
And extinguishing a metal fire is not trivial
Doubly surprising given the fear is expressed in a thread specifically about the 50x energy-density differential between jet fuel and Li-on batteries.
Trivia: there was about as much chemical energy in the fuel of either Boeing 767 that struck the twin towers as the gravitational potential energy released by the towers collapsing.