My last blog urged the banning of lithium-ion batteries in airliners, claiming the free market could quickly provide safer batteries. One of the resulting comments came from Pam Pinkerton, my wife’s good friend and first cousin.
Pam can’t be described as an aviation expert or scientist, but is intelligent and articulate, reads a lot and is fascinated by a myriad of subjects. She emailed me an article titled “10 Alternatives to Lithium-Ion Batteries,” providing not one, but ten—count ‘em, ten—different alternatives the free market is developing to compete with lithium-ion batteries! And that article was written not last week, but last year!
Aha! Perhaps the guvmint needn’t ban lithium-ion batteries after all! There’s a good chance the free market will come up with something that drives lithium ion batteries out of the market!
After all, nobody had to ban piston-prop airplanes or biplanes from airline service. The free market just developed better and safer alternatives. The last piston-powered airliner I flew on was a DC-3, lo these many years ago.
Ain’t the free market wonderful? Long may it live!
Thanks, Pam.
