Boeing 787 (partie 2)

La FAA va ordonner l'inspection de tous les Boeing 787

L'aviation civile américaine s'apprête à
ordonner l'inspection des connecteurs de carburant de tous les Boeing
787 Dreamliners, a annoncé mardi le constructeur.

L'avis de la Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA), qui doit être émis mercredi, "rend obligatoires
les inspections déjà recommandées par Boeing ", précise-t-il dans un
communiqué.

La firme, qui a invité le mois
dernier les compagnies aériennes à vérifier que les connecteurs en
question ont été correctement installés, indique que 33 appareils ont
déjà été inspectés.

Un défaut d'installation des connecteurs peut entraîner des fuites, une baisse de puissance ou des incendies, dit-elle.

Les inspections ont été recommandées
après la détection de fuites à bord de deux appareils. Boeing n'a pas
précisé à quelles compagnies ils appartiennent.

Des problèmes mécaniques ont par
ailleurs contraint mardi un Boeing 787 de United Airlines avec 184
personnes à bord à atterrir d'urgence à La Nouvelle Orléans. L'appareil
parti de Houston à destination de Newark s'est posé sans encombres.
http://www.boursorama.com/actualites/la-faa-va-ordonner-l-inspection-de-tous-les-boeing-787-175f75bc6001cd94b3b09df2cea73f5c

In a statement, Boeing spokeswoman Lori Gunter wrote: “Our technical
team will evaluate the findings…to understand the root cause of this
issue and take the appropriate next steps.”

The FAA is also looking into the problem, saying: “The FAA is working
closely with Boeing to identify the root cause of recent generator
issues with Boeing 787 aircraft. Once we identify the cause, we will
work with Boeing to develop appropriate safety actions.”

Six complete Boeing 787s are awaiting a type certificate that the
Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) probably will not issue
until March.
Hainan Airlines, owner of three of the aircraft,
needs the aircraft to open a route from Beijing to Chicago planned to
begin in April 2013, say industry sources. China Southern wants to put
its three 787s into domestic service first.
The Chinese were ready
to issue the type certificate some years ago but, because of the 787’s
development delays, the results of its preparatory work expired before
the aircraft could go into service, the industry sources say. A Boeing
spokesman says only the company is working with the CAAC and the
airlines to get the aircraft flying in China
Six complete Boeing 787s are awaiting a type certificate that the
Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) probably will not issue
until March.
Hainan Airlines, owner of three of the aircraft,
needs the aircraft to open a route from Beijing to Chicago planned to
begin in April 2013, say industry sources. China Southern wants to put
its three 787s into domestic service first.
The Chinese were ready
to issue the type certificate some years ago but, because of the 787’s
development delays, the results of its preparatory work expired before
the aircraft could go into service, the industry sources say. A Boeing
spokesman says only the company is working with the CAAC and the
airlines to get the aircraft flying in China

La compagnie japonaise All Nippon Airways (ANA) 9202.T a annoncé mercredi l'annulation d'un de ses vols intérieurs en raison de problèmes de freinage décelés sur un Boeing 787

http://www.boursorama.com/actualites/probleme-de-freinage-sur-un-boeing-787-d-all-nippon-airways-99032f05966e967e658bd8e2cfd65167

A new image released by Boeing
shows the first completed horizontal stabiliser for the 787-9 and one
of the key redesign efforts for the 290-seat widebody as it moves closer
to first flight later this year.
The carbon fibre component was
unveiled at a Boeing ceremony on 11 January near Salt Lake City, Utah,
where the company announced the acquisition of a new facility to support
production of the stabiliser.

In
2011, Boeing brought design and production of the horizontal stabiliser
in-house. Workmanship errors on the same section by Alenia Aeronautica
had plagued early production of the 787-8.
Boeing assigned
production for the first 787-9 horizontal stabiliser to its Seattle
Advanced Developmental Composites facility, which was scheduled to
complete the first unit by 31 December.
As the programme
transitions to production, the horizontal stabiliser will be assembled
at Boeing's existing composites facility in Salt Lake City.
Boeing
has now purchased another facility in West Jordan, Utah, which once was
used to build kitchen cabinetry. It is converting the facility over the
next two years to build internal composite components for the
horizontal stabiliser, with the products shipped about 32km (20mi) to
Boeing's Salt Lake City plant.

Boeing already has proposed some interim operational changes, enhanced
battery-health checks and frequent inspections to U.S. and Japanese
regulators, as a way to quickly get the jetliners back in the air,
according to industry and government officials. FAA officials are
reviewing those suggestions.

echnical experts from the FAA and the National Transportation Safety
Board are scheduled to arrive in Japan Friday. Industry and government
experts are saying much of the investigation is bound to concentrate on
why elaborate safeguards—designed into the 787's electrical grid from
the start—apparently failed to prevent the recent emergencies.

The Dreamliner has two lithium ion batteries, each weighing about 63
pounds and measuring about 1½ feet long. One sits underneath the cockpit
in a compartment known as the forward electrical equipment bay, which
was where Wednesday's malfunction occurred, and a second in the aft bay
under the wings, which was the site of last week's fire in Boston.

The reviews by regulators and by Boeing
could result in a need for the company to make changes to the
batteries, which could challenge its plans to double production of the
plane to 10 a month by the end of this year. The company has delivered
50 Dreamliners to customers so far, and has booked orders for about 800
more.

During the introduction of most newly
designed aircraft, typically "there are a certain number of things that
get discovered early and are relatively easy to fix," said Richard
Healing, a former member of the NTSB. But without advocating a redesign,
he said safety issues raised by the 787 could take more time and effort
to resolve.

"They need to be looked at very, very
carefully," Mr. Healing said, including "reviewing how we got to where
we are, and to see if there is something important that was missed."

The 787 has a number of redundant
safety systems intended to prevent the batteries from overcharging or
overheating, which creates unstable metallic lithium that can ignite and
result in a thermal "runaway."

The announcement came even before FAA
investigators had a chance to examine the battery on the second airliner
that recently caught fire. But based on preliminary information, the
FAA decided that continued flight was too dangerous in light of the
"release of flammable electrolytes, heat damage and smoke" that resulted
from the pair of incidents earlier this month.
Changing the battery wouldn't be as simple as swapping one out for
another type, said a person directly familiar with the jet's design. The
787's integrated architecture is anchored around the quality of the
power from the lithium ion battery. Any change in supplier or design
would be "a pretty significant challenge," the person said, requiring
layers of modification from hardware to controlling software to adjust
for a new battery.

"You start changing the variables the
second you change the established and certified system, you have to
change all the tentacles that are attached and that are reliant on that
battery," says Carter Leake, a former airline pilot and senior equity
research analyst for BB&T Capital Markets.

Not only the 50 Dreamliners already in service with airlines around
the world have been grounded — Boeing can’t even conduct test flights on
the newly built planes parked outside its Everett factory.

The interim solution Boeing has offered to the FAA includes stringent
one-time inspections of the lithium ion batteries on the jets, as well
as detailed instructions for pilots to do preflight battery checks, said
a person with knowledge of the situation.

“Boeing is proposing a way of doing a complete health check on every
battery as part of a solution to get the planes back in the air,” the
person said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“It’s also proposing some measures that would hopefully allow pilots
to catch error messages that might be a precursor to battery failure
before a plane leaves the ground.”

However, that person and another with indirect knowledge of the
negotiations said it’s unclear whether the FAA will accept such interim
fixes until the underlying reason for the battery problems is known.

And as of Thursday afternoon, the first person said, “nobody has a clear answer yet.”

That leaves considerable doubt that the grounding can be resolved quickly.