NTSB blames bad battery design?and bad management?in Boeing 787 fires | Ars Technica

and official NTSB report:

http://www.ntsb.gov/doclib/reports/2014/AIR1401.pdf

I am an engineer as indicated in my log on name. From what I can find out this problem, after looking at the 787 battery issue, is not just a lithium-ion battery nor is it strictly a Boeing problem. I am not a pilot so I need feedback from pilots so could some please answer the following questions:

1. Have you ever had a power failure associated with your communication and/or navigation aids?

2. Have you lost displays in the cockpit, especially in the 777?

Please indicate the type of aircraft and whether you were on the ground or in the air.

Thanks for your time.

CAUTION: This person *might* be working for a law firm, so be wary in your responses.

Personally, never. There are multiple power sources so a backup gen has always been available, and I've never experienced a failure/short of a common bus, not even in general aviation (I know it's happened to others though).

I'm not going to address specific aircraft types, but in general...

Yes. CRT glass displays occasionally burn out due to age, but there are multiple reversion options to display the data on other CRTs so I've never actually lost the ability to see the data. Also both CRTs and Flat-screen displays have multi-pin connectors which can occasionally suffer a bad connection. On at least some aircraft the display module can re-racked in flight by the pilots without any tools, to attempt to restore a good connection. I'm not aware of any SOP allowing this procedure in flight, but in an emergency the PIC could do so at his discretion.

Yes, and Yes. As an Engineer, you know that if you design a point of failure (intentionally, or unintentionally) and put enough cycles on a system - you will see a failure mode.

I've seen the "displays in the cockpit" go dark on an airborne 777.

A caution was issued about me being with a law firm. I am not. Now, you can say that I am either a lying lawyer or a truthful engineer! I started looking at this problem with the 787 battery fires because I had fixed this problem before with lead-acid and ni-cad batteries. Then MH370 went down and I looked at the battery design on the 777, which uses ni-cads. I found the internet that the cockpit displays are powered by the 28volt buss and I will bet the radio and transponder are also. The reason I can't let it go is that I can fix the problem. Now I will be honest (more than any lawyer will be), I want to be paid to tell what the problem is and how to fix it. I think lives are at risk and I can't get any one to even talk to me. I have contacted Boeing, the NTSB and the FAA. Any suggestions to help in this endeavor will be greatly appreciated.

Find Sully. The media loves him. Convince him and he can get it on the air and in the news.

If you think you have a better solution to a problem: design a fix, get it FAA approved and apply for what the industry calls a "Supplemental Type Certificate" (STC). You can then charge for your "product" and sell it to any potential customers. If your solution has value, you can make money. (Raisebeck Engineering is one such company that is successful with this process.)