Terry Blanton wrote:
Cars and trucks often catch on fire; I have seen many,
but I have never seen a battery burn.
LOL! More people have been killed by Ford Pintos than Dell laptops.
Well, naturally a burning automobile is more dangerous than a burning
laptop, because there is so much fuel available. On the other hand,
it would be scary if a laptop were to burst into flames in an
airplane. (I think they mainly burn while charging, but nowadays you
can plug in a laptop in-fight on some airplanes -- and on the Amtrak
train I rode the other day.)
My main point was that a small number of battery types have caused
most of the fires, and I sure the manufactures will fix the problem.
Sony had to fork over $257 million to compensate customers and
replace batteries. That's not the kind of problem management will ignore.
Regarding fuel and fires, last month when I was revising the aircraft
section of my book, I discussed fuel and range with an old pilot. He
told me what pilots always say:
'The only time you have too much fuel is when the plane is on fire.'
Pilots have lots of these pithy maxims. I like this one:
'There are old pilots and bold pilots, but no old, bold pilots.'
- Jed
