Boeing faces lengthy Dreamliner delay, former US transport chief warns

[marmar]

(Guardian UK) Boeing could face months of delays before its Dreamliner 787 can get back in service, according to the former head of the US Department of Transport.

Mary Schiavo, the former DoT inspector general, said it looked increasingly unlikely that a quick fix will be found to the battery issues that have led to the global grounding of Boeing's hi-tech aircraft.

"It looks like an unfortunate situation for Boeing. It looks like there is not going to be a quick solution, and that we are not looking at days of grounding but possibly months," she said.

"So far, at least, it appears not to have been a bad batch of batteries, which would have been the best of all possible worlds for Boeing," she said. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/jan/21/boeing-7870-dreamliner-fire-split-regulators

[blm]

1. Are these planes being built in any low-wage, GOP 'right2work' states, by any chance?

.

[hedda_foil]

4. The components are sourced from different companies around the world.

The lithium ion batteries are from Japan. They're part of overall package that is made by a British manufacturer.


http://www.courant.com/business/hc-gs-yuasa-boeing-787-20130122,0,7013434.story

<snip>…
Japan's transportation ministry says it will conduct a second probe of GS Yuasa Corp.'s headquarters in Kyoto and add a British supplier to an investigation into faults that have grounded Boeing Co.'s 787 Dreamliner fleet.

Officials will return to GS Yuasa's offices Tuesday after a first search was undertaken Monday with U.S. regulators, the ministry said in a statement. Investigators also are being sent to Britain to probe a valve actuator maker for the 787, the ministry said, without identifying the target company.

GS Yuasa's batteries are the focal point of the investigation into the causes of a fire on a Japan Airlines Co. plane and an emergency landing by an All Nippon Airways Co. jet. Chicago-based Boeing said last week it won't deliver more 787s until the Federal Aviation Administration confirms the Dreamliner's flammable lithium-ion batteries that are part of the electrical system supplied by Thales SA, are safe.

<snip>

Tucson, Arizona-based Securaplane Technologies Inc., which makes a charger for batteries used on the Boeing Co's 787 Dreamliner, said on Sunday it would support an investigation into battery issues that have grounded the new planes.

Securaplane, a unit of Britain's Meggitt Plc, first began working on the charger in 2004, but suffered millions of dollars of damages in November 2006 after a lithium-ion battery used in testing exploded and sparked a fire that burned an administrative building to the ground.

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board on Sunday ruled out excess voltage as the cause of a battery fire on the 787 at the Boston airport this month. It said investigators would travel on Tuesday to Tucson, Arizona, where Securaplane is based, to test and examine the charger and download memory from the controller for the auxiliary power unit. They also plan to travel to Phoenix and carry out similar tests at the site where a unit of United Technologies Corp builds the power unit.

[CurtEastPoint]

2. SC isn't it?

[PoliticAverse]

3. It may take them a while to find out what really happened.

This can be difficult with the planes grounded if some type of transient/intermittent
situation is involved.