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Lithium aircraft batteries

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sprocket(at)vx-aviation.c
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Posted: Tue May 29, 2012 8:17 am Post subject: Lithium aircraft batteries

This technology is outside my field, so I am appealing to others for  insight:

  

 ‘aircraft battery’ from: wicks  aircraft

 Underlying technology:  a123  systems

  

 There are a lot of hand-waving claims on these batteries, but not a lot of  hard technical data.  I’m sure that they can be adapted for flight, but  some thoughtful ground testing would be useful.  Thoughts?

  

 Vern

  

   [quote][b]

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nuckolls.bob(at)aeroelect
Guest

Posted: Tue May 29, 2012 9:28 am Post subject: Lithium aircraft batteries

At 11:15 AM 5/29/2012, you wrote:

  	  Quote: 	
		  This technology is outside my field, so I am appealing to others for insight:

  

 ‘aircraft battery’ from:  wicks aircraft

 Underlying technology:  a123 systems

  

 There are a lot of hand-waving claims on these batteries, but not a lot of hard technical data.  I’m sure that they can be adapted for flight, but some thoughtful ground testing would be useful.  Thoughts?

  

 Vern 	


   Li-Ion batteries for have been the Holy Grail

   for the TC aviation battery guys for quite some time.

   HBC was up to their eyeballs in studies for weight

   reduction without sacrificing performance before I

   left. I spent a significant amount of time studying

   battery issues for HBC in both the legacy (lead-acid)

   and shining-star-on-the-horizon worlds.



   To Cessna's credit, they spent a barrel of money

   and a lot of person-hours getting a Li-Ion product

   qualified for their aircraft. In fact, I think it was

   a brand new Citation being prepared for a big show

   that was fitted with a Li-Ion that caught fire on

   the ramp. This experience highlighted a few of

   the snakes not yet stuffed into the sack . . .



   Nobody had the slightest notion how to fight a lithium

   fire . . . nor were they provided the equipment

   to do it.



   Rumor has it that the battery was being charged on

   ground power and some hitch in the systems management

   software intended to prevent this accident wasn't

   minding the store. This is a RUMOR . . . I'm not yet

   privy to inside information of reliable source.



   Nonetheless, the incident sparked a rapid recall of

   all Li-Ion batteries still in the States. Since

   two airplanes were out of the country, Cessna's

   prophylactic against another occurrence called for an

   A/D to remove the Li-Ion battery in favor of

   SVLA or NiCad.



   I was asked to evaluate a Li-Ion product for suitability

   as a cranking battery on a TC light plane. The inquiry

   arrived just weeks before the Cessna ramp incident.

   Shucks, if Cessna could do it, I was inclined to

   favor use of this particular technology (Li-Fe)

   in the putt-putt.



   Yes, thousands of these batteries are in service

   everywhere and the owners of these batteries swear

   by their virtues. Nothing like consumer enthusiasm

   to drive up numbers of folks willing to wade in.



   It's a simple caveat emptor situation. If the weight

   of demonstrated successes combined with the weight

   savings is sufficiently powerful to encourage your

   own experiment, the risks are not scarry. . . but

   probably 1000x greater than for hazards demonstrated

   by SVLA devices (read this to mean that SVLA batteries

   are exceedingly low hazard).



   The other question to be asked and answered, "Okay,

   I've saved x.x pounds'. Now how do I use them?"

   I'm sure there are times when I left the ground

   a few pounds over-gross . . . not sure I'd spend

   extra dollars to stay under-gross no matter how safe

   the battery might be.



   A single weight-savings effort almost never offers

   a good return on investment. A TOTAL weight savings

   effort produces an airplane like Voyager that was

   sucked dry of no-value-added weight. It took

   5 pounds of fuel to carry 1 pound of airplane

   around the world. 1 pound of empty weight was 6

   pounds added weight at takeoff and perhaps 100

   miles less range. This thought process produced

   an airplane that Dick Rutan feared. He wrote of

   nightmares about this airplane killing him.



   Someplace between goals and risk assumption

   for around-the-world-flight  . . . and taking off

   for a nice weekend with the wife in Santa Fe, there

   is a very comfortable middle ground that probably

   is not improved by swapping out the plastic box

   of lead for a box of lithium.



 

   Bob . . .    [quote][b]

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nuckolls.bob(at)aeroelect
Guest

Posted: Tue May 29, 2012 9:55 am Post subject: Lithium aircraft batteries

 	  Quote: 	
		     Someplace between goals and risk assumption

   for around-the-world-flight  . . . and taking off

   for a nice weekend with the wife in Santa Fe, there

   is a very comfortable middle ground that probably

   is not improved by swapping out the plastic box

   of lead for a box of lithium.


	


    Here are some links for the "hot products" of

    the moment in LiFePo4 technologies . . .



http://tinyurl.com/6pebb9a



http://tinyurl.com/75fnqwa



http://tinyurl.com/6ol4uwy



http://tinyurl.com/7gayeoe

    No doubt these things can get yer juices

    going . . .



    It would be interesting to run one in a 4-wheeled

    vehicle for awhile.

   Bob . . .

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