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Boeing suggests solution to Dreamliner battery problem

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Boeing suggests solution to Dreamliner battery problem

By Phil Davies

Boeing suggests solution to Dreamliner battery problemBoeing has presented measures it hopes will get the Dreamliner back in the air to the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The aircraft manufacturer proposed ways to fix the 787’s battery problems which have led to its grounding at a meeting with the FAA on Friday.

Boeing is reported to believe the measures could have the aircraft flying by late March or April.

However, the cause of overheating in a lithium-ion battery on a Japan Airlines 787 has yet to be identified.

The 50 Dreamliners in service around the world have been grounded since January 16 after a battery fire on the Japan Airlines 787 parked at Boston and an emergency landing by an All Nippon Airways aircraft in Japan.

Investigators believe a short circuit in one of the battery cells caused overheating that led to the fire which then spread through the battery.

Boeing has proposed insulating the battery’s lithium-ion cells from one another to prevent fire spreading, encasing the battery in a fire-proof shell and installing sensors.

It also proposes a venting mechanism to remove fumes which led to the emergency landing.

Japanese investigators have identified the likely cause of the fumes which led to the emergency landing, reporting they found faulty wiring on the battery of the All Nippon Airways 787.

The aircraft’s auxiliary power unit was incorrectly connected to the main battery. However, the root cause of the battery fire in Boston has not been found.

Japanese transport minister Akihiro Ohta said: “It’s too early to say we are over the hump.”

Aviation analyst Douglas McNeill told the BBC: “Until it’s crystal clear what went wrong the FAA will be reluctant to let the 787s resume [flying].”

US transport secretary Ray LaHood has warned the 787 will not fly again until the FAA is “1,000% sure” the batteries are safe.

Meanwhile, All Nippon Airways is cancelling all Boeing 787 Dreamliner flights until at least the end of May.

More than 1,700 flights in April and May are affected, a period that includes Japan’s Golden Week holiday. This takes the total number of affected ANA Dreamliner flights to 3,600.

An ANA spokeswoman told the BBC: “Unfortunately, it includes Golden Week, but we have decided to inform our customers in advance as the prospect for their resumption is still unseen.”

ANA is Boeing’s biggest Dreamliner customer, with 17 of the world’s 50 operational 787s.all of which have been grounded. International regulators grounded all Dreamliners last month in so that safety checks could be carried out on their lithium ion batteries.

Airbus opts for ‘Plan B’ for A350 after 787 battery problem

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Airbus opts for ‘Plan B’ for A350 after 787 battery problem

By Phil Davies

Airbus opts for 'Plan B' for A350 after 787 battery problemAirbus will not use lithium-ion batteries in its forthcoming A350 aircraft because of problems that have grounded rival Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner.

The European manufacturer is to use traditional nickel-cadmium batteries instead, as already used in the A380 superjumbo and other models.

Investigations are continuing after battery problems came to light on 787s operated by Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways which left 50 Dreamliners grounded around the world.

Airbus said it was “confident” that the lithium-ion battery it had been developing with French battery-maker Saft was “robust and safe”.

It added that A350 test flights would continue with the lithium batteries.

“However, to date, the root causes of the two recent industry Li-ion main batteries incidents remain unexplained to the best of our knowledge,” Airbus said.

“In this context, and with a view to ensuring the highest level of programme certainty, Airbus has decided to activate its Plan B and therefore to revert back to the proven and mastered nickel-cadmium main batteries for its A350 XWB programme at entry into service.

“Airbus considers this to be the most appropriate way forward in the interest of programme execution and A350 XWB reliability.”

The firm said it did not expect any further delays to the launch of the A350, intended as a rival to the 787. The maiden flight is due to take place later this year, with the first passenger flight expected in the second half of 2014, the BBC reported.

Tui puts contingency plans in place for Dreamliner

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Tui puts contingency plans in place for Dreamliner

By Phil Davies

Tui puts contingency plans in place for DreamlinerTui Travel has no plans to cancel its order for 13 Boeing 787 Dreamliners.

But the travel group is having to make contingency plans in case deliveries are delayed following trouble with batteries on 787s flown by Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways

Chief executive Peter Long said: “Our view is that this is the right airplane for us and we do not intend to change our order for the aircraft.

“We wait to see that these short-term issues are resolved with the regulatory authorities … but we don’t have visibility around how long that will take.”

He spoke ahead of the US Federal Aviation Administration granting Boeing the go-ahead to carry out 787 test flights.

Tui hopes to introduce the aircraft in May and plans to operate the aircraft on long-haul routes from Manchester, Gatwick, Glasgow and East Midlands to destinations including Florida, Mexico, Barbados, Cuba, Kenya and Thailand.

Long said: “Our priority is running our own programme and we will have to determine whether this is going to happen in May. We are building contingency plans because we have to.”

Regulators around the world grounded the new generation 787 in mid-January after a battery fire in Boston and a second incident involving a battery on a flight in Japan.

The FAA said the test flights will help collect data about battery performance “while the aircraft is airborne”.

A Boeing spokesman said the information will “support the continuing investigations into the cause of the recent 787 battery incidents”.

“We are confident that the 787 is safe to operate for this flight test activity,” he added.

The FAA said it had asked Boeing to conduct extensive pre-flight testing and inspections and that the flights would be conducted “in defined airspace over unpopulated areas”.

But the US National Transportation Safety Board said tests carried out by Boeing on Dreamliner batteries, when they were first certified, missed the high risk of fire.

The tests underestimated the frequency of “smoke events” in the lithium ion batteries.

NTSB chairman Deborah Hersman said that Boeing’s safety checks suggested that a smoke event would occur less than once every 10 million flight hours.

However, 787s have only clocked up 100,000 hours of flight-time since entering commercial services, and have experienced two battery fires.

Hersman said that “the failure rate was higher than predicted as part of the certification process and the possibility that a short circuit in a single cell could propagate to adjacent cells and result in smoke and fire must be reconsidered”.