[Land-speed] Ford's Hydrogen 999 racer shooting for fuel cell land speed record > Hybrid News

[Jon Amo]

Mayf,
"I have a pretty extensive engineering background and I don't know squat
about fuel cells, except that one blew the side out of one of the lunar
missions and the mission had to be scrubbed (or was that Skylab?)."

Wasn't that from an oxygen tank stir on Apollo 13????

Jon


-----Original Message-----
From: drmayf [mailto:drmayf at mayfco.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2007 3:14 PM
To: webmaster at landracing.com
Cc: James Tone; land-speed at autox.team.net; Rick Byrnes
Subject: Re: [Land-speed] Ford's Hydrogen 999 racer shooting for fuel
cell land speed record > Hybrid News


Jon, sounds like you have volunteered to inspect the car! Great!  I am
sure that you will do a good job. Not me, I have a pretty extensive
engineering background and I don't know squat about fuel cells, except
that one blew the side out of one of the lunar missions and the mission
had to be scrubbed (or was that Skylab?).  Now I gotta tell you, that
that vehicle received more inspections and safety reviews than anything
that has ever run on the salt or ever will, and it still failed
disasterously. Now the point of the fire is good but when do you use the
broom? After you have burned the dookey out of yourself? Are you
qualified to inspect pressure relief valves? Do you know how they are
certified? And what happens inside a cell when the flow of electricity
is cut off? Does the reaction continue? Does it get hot (you bet it
does!).   If there is a possiblity of explosion after an upset, how long
does the fire crew wait to get the driver out?  With turbines and
gasoline and electricity from batteries, these are common things to
react to. Fuel cells are not. And on the flip side they may be as safe
as anyhing we ever use. BUt there is no experience with them.

Now another odd part to this and actually any corporate program car
entered. The rules say the owner and the driver must both be BNI
members. Now Rick, in this case is for sure a member, but who signs for
the owner? Not Rick, he is not culpable in any lawsuit. So who is? Is
the owner a lawyer from the law staff? Did Mr. JCB sign for the Diesel
Max? How about the GM cars? No, I don't really care, this is just the
odd question..   I would think that if FOrd is gonna claim
respponsibility for the "record" then Mmaybe my Boein compatriot Allan
Mullaly should sign as th eresponsibel owner... Yeah, that ain't ever
gonna happen is it... It would be interesting to trace the ownership of
the vehicle.... just to see who is accountable.

mayf