I’ve been doing space launch failure investigations my entire career, and have never seen anything like this. I was sent to oversee the failure investigation. The ACM used a lithium-ion battery pack power supply, one of which burned up during a test at the manufacturer’s facility in California. This one was familiar to me I had worked at ATK prior to going to FAA, and one of my assignments was on the Orion Launch Escape System Attitude Control Motor. Though Chief Engineer in Commercial Space, I received weekly briefings on aviation issues. I was working at FAA headquarters in 2013 (albeit in the Office of Commercial Space Transportation) when the long-suffering Boeing 787 NightmareDreamliner was grounded due to lithium battery fires in its Auxiliary Power Unit – one of the plane’s critical safety systems. On the Kulmbach, Bavaria, e-vehicle fire, read here. And what’s particularly bad is that the left-wing green media are keeping quiet about the event.” And anyone who is just a little bit familiar with the subject also knows that e-mobility is by no means as good as we are always led to believe, even from an environmental and “climate protection” point of view. Numerous technical and practical problems associated with e-mobility are far from being satisfactorily solved. Regardless of the many question marks behind e-mobility, the city of Hanover is pushing it by hook or by crook, and even more so under its Green mayor Belit Onay. In February, Kulmbach in Bavaria became the first German city to close underground garages to e-cars as a result. An affected battery acts as a powerful fire accelerant due to a chain reaction and must also burn out completely, which can take as long as two days. It’s really not a good idea to park e-buses close each other.Īlthough fires can happen anywhere, they become critical and dangerous when e-vehicles are involved. Luckily, injuries were reported in the incident. Scary! Four shuttle buses on a campus of Guangxi, China, bust into flames on Saturday, as intense smoke roaring upward. For example, four shuttle buses in Guangxi, China, exploded into flames last month: Five e-buses, two hybrids and two combustion engines were destroyed, as were also the building and the charging station.Īccording to the European Institute for Climate and Energy (EIKE), Hanover’s administration wants to run only e-buses in the city center area by 2023 and is purchasing 50 new vehicles in a bid to reduce the air pollution.Į-buses have shown to catch fire very rapidly. According to fire fighters, the fire broke out on Saturday afternoon at the Üstra transport company where electric buses were parked,Īccording to Üstra spokesman Udo Iwannek, the fire caused damage running in the millions. The Duke was fascinated by anything technical.Just a day before EIKE reported on burning e-vehicles in China, the electric vehicle curse struck in Hanover, Germany.Ī fire at a bus depot in Hanover caused millions of euros in damage. Could we do something different? That’s where my 1998 memory cut in. HM and HRH, she said, were rather “servicedout” – wherever they went there were more “stamp and circumponce” events. The then Lord-Lieutenant came to see me to plan the event. I remembered that when, for The Queen’s 2012 Diamond Jubilee Tour of the nation, Sherborne was chosen as her only destination in Dorset. Keith told me afterwards that the Duke was fascinated by what you might call the “physics” of the new window: its installation, and the techniques of its making and firing and leading. But in the processional line-up I did notice Prince Philip in animated conversation with my head verger, the late Keith Batten.
It was very much what in my trade we call a “stamp and circumponce” service, and I had little opportunity to do other than meet and greet our royal visitors.
The first time was in 1998, for the dedication of the Abbey’s new Great West Window. Twice on my watch as Vicar of Sherborne, Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh visited the town, and the Abbey itself.