Boeing 787 (partie 2)

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.

"I think Alan Mulally wanted to be gamechanging. So 'job one', as he
would say at Ford, was 'everything on this airplane is going to be
game-changing'," says Leahy.
But incorporating gamechanging
technology is not always for the better, he says: "We do not believe the
787's electric pressurisation brings anything except maintenance and
reliability problems.
"We don't think having an airplane flying at
41,000ft, in minus 60 degree outside temperature, should be heated
electronically. We've got sources of power called the engines that
aren't using all their power, and you can use some of that to pressurise
and heat the cabin, to deice the airplane."
When Airbus redesigned the A350
seven years ago to create the all-new XWB, Leahy admits that he pushed
the engineers to follow Boeing's lead on all-electric architecture. But
he is pleased he was overruled.
Airbus engineers went "back and
forth" three times about whether to equip the XWB with electric brakes
before deciding to stick with conventional hydraulic architecture.
"I'm
guilty as the commercial guy for pounding the table saying 'look [the
787's] all-electric - it's game-changing'," Leahy admits. But trade-off
studies by Airbus engineers could not justify adopting the technology.
Leahy says: "They told me: 'You're not going to like the reliability - it's going to be complex, heavy, and hard to maintain'."

Boeing Co.’s North Charleston final assembly factory will not achieve a production rate of three 787s per month this year as previously forecast, a plant executive said Friday.
Willy Geary, the site’s director of operations, said the local final assembly operation is still only producing about 1.5 Dreamliners per month and won’t be able to double that pace over the next six months.
“It’ll take a little bit to get fully to three here,” Geary said. Pressed for a new timeline, he said “by first quarter roughly.”
Geary, who recently ascended to second in command at Boeing South Carolina (just below general manager Jack Jones), emphasized the overall program goal of producing ten 787s per month by the end of the year is still on track, thanks to the local aft-and mid-fuselage factories and in the other 787 final assembly facilities in Everett, Wash.
Speaking after the morning ceremony to mark the first 787 delivery to China’s Hainan Airlines, Geary also provided other updates on Boeing’s expanding operations in North Charleston.
While the local fuselage factories have been making sections for the 787-9 stretch Dreamliner for months now, the final assembly facility is still only making the 787-8 base model. The first 787-9 will start coming together in that facility “around the fall of 2014,” Geary confirmed.
As for Boeing’s spring request for proposals for a potential 737 MAX inlet engineering and assembly facility nearby, Geary said the company is reviewing the responses but would not say when a decision will be made.
“Soon,” he said. “Let’s just put it that way.”
Boeing is already leasing space just down U.S. Interstate 526 from its main factory complex for the beginning stages of what will become one of the company’s main information technology hubs. Geary said not much more than management are there now, but those leaders are “in the middle of hiring.”
“They’ll ramp up,” he said. “They’re in the heavy throes of that right now.”
Finally, there’s been increasing speculation about whether the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers will garner the support necessary to stage a National Labor Relations Board vote later this year as the local union representative has predicted.
Geary said Boeing management tracks union activity but can’t speak to “what their game plan is.”
“I know what our game plan is, which is to take care of our people so they wouldn’t have a desire to look towards a union,” he said. “So, the union’s free to do what they want. They’re always going to be after us. We just got to be vigilant about taking care of our people.”

Admin a écrit:salut beo
Pour le moment le plus important c'est de savoir ce qu'il s'est passe... Et voir s ok le fuselage carbone a tenu ses promesses en terme de resistance au feu