Battery Fire at Archer’s San Jose Lab Forces Evacuation
Three people were hurt and about 100 evacuated after a test pack overheated
By Hanneke Weitering
A battery test pack caught fire on Monday at Archer Aviation’s battery lab in San Jose, California, after its lithium-ion cells overheated in an uncontrollable chain reaction known as thermal runaway. The fire injured three people and forced about 100 people to evacuate, Archer reported.
Company co-founder and CEO Adam Goldstein said on X that the pack was a next-generation battery for “a future pipeline program,” not for the company’s Midnight eVTOL air taxi. Archer has not said what that program is. Its other announced programs include Thunder, a hybrid-electric autonomous defense aircraft it is developing with Anduril, and Halo, a commercial utility drone derived from Thunder.
Read more here: Battery Fire at Archer Aviation’s San Jose Laboratory Forces Evacuation | Aviation International News
