Impact of boeing 787’s battery failure on airlines

Prepared By,Aditya T Parmar,

Student,Department Of Electrical Engineering,

Charotar University Of Science & Technology,Email – [email protected]

Abstract Boeing Commercial Airplane is the most leading airplane

manufacturing company in the world.

It has manufactured thousands of commercial airplanes till date. Among all the airplanes, the latest airplane Boeing 787 is most fuel efficient and economical airplane.

Unfortunately after some time of launch, many airlines complained about battery failure in Boeing 787 during flight.

My article talks about how the problem was raised, which airlines were suffered from this problem and how this problem was faced by the Boeing Commercial Airplane to solve it within a short time to operate B787 in the sky successfully.

Introduction

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is a long-range, mid-size wide-body, twin-engine jet airliner developed by Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

Its variants seat 210 to 335 passengers.

It is Boeing's most fuel-efficient airliner and the world's first major airliner to use composite materials as the primary material in the construction of its airframe.

The 787 has been designed to be 20% more fuel efficient than the 767 it is to replace. Boeing has made 32$ billion to of expenditure on the making and testing of Boeing 787 upto 2011. The unit price of Boeing 787 is 218.3$ million in 2013.

First commercial flight of Boeing 787 is operated on October 26,2011 by All Nippon Airways. And other primary users operating Boeing 787 is Japan Airlines, Air India, Ethiopian Airline.

Impacts Of Battery Failure On Airlines

On January 16, 2013, All Nippon Airways Flight NH-692, en route from Yamaguchi Ube Airport to Tokyo Haneda, had a battery problem warning followed by a burning smell while climbing from Ube about 35 nautical miles west of Takamatsu, Japan. The aircraft diverted to Takamatsu and was evacuated via the slides; three passengers received minor injuries during the evacuation.

A similar incident took place with Japan Airline’s 787 at Boston's Logan International Airport within the same week.

These two incidents has made Federal Administration Of Aviation force to ground all the Boeing 787 in service at that time.

On the same day Japan Airline and All Nippon Airways announced that they are voluntarily grounding or suspending flights of their fleets of 787s after multiple incidents, including emergency landing.

These two airlines were operating 24 of the 50 787 Dreamlinersdelivered to date.

The grounding is reported to have a cost All Nippon Airways to lost 93$ million.

Chile’s Directorate General Of Civil Aviation grounded LAN Airline’s 3 787s.

The Indian Directorate General Of Civil Aviation directed Air India to ground its six 787 Dreamliners.Qatar Airways grounded its all five 787s.

And Ethiopian Airlines was the last operator to announce temporary grounding of its four 787s.

Finally By, January 17,2013, All 50 of the aircraft delivered to date had been grounded.

On January 18, Boeing announced that it was halting 787 deliveries until the battery problem is resolved.

Actions Taken By Boeing Commercial Airplane

Boeing Commercial Airplane was very eager to solve Boeing 787’s battery problem as early as possible to resume the delivery of 787s as well as to resume the fleets which were grounded by many primary airlines worldwide.

Mr. Mike Sinnett, vice president and chief project engineer,787 Program, Boeing Commercial Airplane Said that “ We've come up with a comprehensive set of solutions that result in a safer battery system, We have found a number of ways to improve the battery system and we don't let safety improvements go once they are identified. We incorporate them into our processes and products."

The first step was taken by Boeing is to control the manufacturing process of the batteries in Japan. The Boeing teamed with Thales, The provider of the integrated power conversion system, and battery maker GS Yuasa to develop enhanced production standards and tests to further reduce any possibility for variation in the production of the individual cells as well as the overall battery.

They have also added new 4 tests to screen cell production and total of 10 distinct tests. Each cell of the battery was going through more rigorous testing in the month of manufacturing including 14 day test during which discharge rates were being taken every hour. This team also decided to narrow the level of charge for the battery by lowering the highest charge allowed and raising the lower level allowed for discharge. Also they had redesigned the two pieces of battery- The battery monitoring system and charger. Charger was also designed so to lower the stresses on the battery during charging process.

Team had also designed new fireproof battery enclosure made up of stainless steel. It isolates the battery from the rest of the equipment in the electronic equipment bays. This enclosure has a facility to direct vent to carry battery vapors outside the airplane.

After 200,000 hours of engineering work, team was successful to make a new 100 % secured battery for Boeing 787. FAA permitted Boeing for the battery tests to get FAA Approval and after completing very difficult and critical tests of 100,000 hours, new design was approved by FAA.

President and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplane Raymond L Conner said “ We are following all of the necessary protocols to get our new design fully approved and properly installed so that we can help our customers start flying as soon as possible. We're simultaneously moving out on an effort to resume deliveries but completing our certification work and getting the delivered fleet flying again is our first priority, Our customers and their passengers have been incredibly patient as we have worked through this process and we thank them very sincerely for their continued support and confidence in the 787.”

Conclusion

Boeing Commercial Airplane introduced very efficient and economic airplane that is Boeing 787, popularly known as Dreamliner. As every successful designs need to face the difficulties, Boeing 787 was also having battery failure problem but the infinite efforts made by Boeing team made it possible to put 787s again to touch the sky.

Reference

www.Boeing.com

www.wikipedia.org