New hope for grounded Dreamliner

A BOEING plan to redesign the 787 Dreamliner’s fire-plagued lithium-ion batteries has been approved from America’s aviation authority, but there was no word on when the planes would be allowed to fly passengers again.
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The 787 fleet has been grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration and civil aviation authorities in other countries since January 16, following a battery fire on a Dreamliner parked in Boston and a smoking battery that led to the emergency landing of another 787 in Japan.

The 787 is Boeing’s newest and most technologically advanced plane. Its grounding marked the first time since 1979 that FAA had ordered every plane of a particular type to stay out of the air for safety reasons.

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The Boeing plan includes changes to the internal battery components to minimise the possibility of short-circuiting, which can lead to overheating and cause a fire. Among the changes are better insulation of the battery’s eight cells and the addition of a new containment and venting system, the FAA said in a statement.

Congressman Rick Larsen, who was briefed by the agency, said that if all goes well, the FAA could give final approval by mid- to late April for the 787 to resume flight.

Boeing would still have to retrofit the 50 planes already delivered to eight airlines in seven countries, Mr Larsen said. That, he said, could mean the plane would not return to the skies until late April or early May.

First, Boeing’s redesigned batteries have to pass 20 separate tests lab, Mr Larsen said, then flight tests would follow. “If there’s any one test that isn’t passed, it’s back to the drawing board for that particular part of the tests,” he said.

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So far, test flights of two 787s have been approved – one with a complete prototype of the new battery, the other with only a new, more robust containment box for the battery, Boeing spokesman Marc Birtel said.

The plan is an outline for a recertification of the plane’s batteries, the FAA said. The 787 has two identical lithium-ion batteries, one of which is located toward the front of the plane and powers cockpit electrical systems, the other towards the rear and used to start an auxiliary power unit while the plane is on the ground, among other functions.

Every item that is part of a plane, down to its nuts and bolts, must be certified as safe before FAA approves that type of aircraft as safe for flight.

“This comprehensive series of tests will show us whether the proposed battery improvements will work as designed,” US transportation secretary Ray LaHood said. “We won’t allow the plane to return to service unless we’re satisfied that the new design ensures the safety of the aircraft and its passengers.”

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The cutting-edge airliner’s troubles have raised concerns that the FAA has ceded too much responsibility for evaluating the safety of new aircraft to manufacturers.

To save manpower, the FAA designates employees at aircraft makers and their subcontractors to oversee the safety testing of new planes. Boeing’s battery testing concluded that short-circuiting would not lead to a fire and that the chance of a smoke event was one in every 10m flight hours.

Instead, there were two battery failures when the entire fleet had clocked less than 52,000 flight hours.

The FAA’s approval of Boeing’s battery plan “is a critical and welcome milestone toward getting the fleet flying again and continuing to deliver on the promise of the 787”, Jim McNerney, the aircraft maker’s chief executive, said.

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UBS analyst David Strauss estimated that the 787 would cost Boeing $6bn this year. Besides the battery problems, the plane already costs more to build than it brings in from customers.

United Airlines is the only US carrier with Dreamliners in its fleet. It has six, plus another 44 on order. American and Delta have also ordered 787s. Including United, 50 of the planes had been delivered to eight airlines in seven countries at the time of the grounding orders. Boeing has orders for more than 800 of the planes.

Steven Udvar-Hazy, chief executive of Air Lease, which has ordered 12 of the planes, said that a very long-term grounding could damage the 787 Dreamliner brand. “It’s important to get the airplane back in the air,” he said while attending an aircraft finance conference in Florida. “Every plane has mechanical issues, but this was one that was considered serious by the authorities and I think Boeing has done everything it can to get that under control.”

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