Originally Posted by
lbenton
Items in the passenger cabin have the benefit of a climate controlled pressurized environment. I also imagine that the bulk / volume of the battery can come into play at some point as well. And I have seen cell phone batteries puff.
If you ship a lipo just declare it properly and let them handle it.
FYI, the cargo hold is pressurized. It would be impractical for structural reasons to pressurize half of a cylinder. Look at the cross section of an airplane fuselage. It's cylindrical. There's a reason why pressure vessels are round, and the reason is hoop stress. Trying to reinforce the large flat floor to withstand the differential pressure would add significant weight to the plane and be completely unnecessary. Look at your air compressor tank. Now look at the fuselage of an airplane. Look similar? Yeah, because they're both pressure vessels.
Also, the cargo holds are not heated, but they are not typically below freezing. There are live animals down there, and they don't want everyone's shampoo and stuff freezing and leaking all over the place.
