American planemaker Boeing’s revolu- tionary 787 Dreamliner airliner was grounded by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on January 16, following a series of incidents and failures. On January 7, a Japan Air Lines 787 suffered a battery explosion and the very next day another from the same airline experienced a fuel leak. Then an All Nippon Airways 787 suffered brake problems, while another was found to have cracks in its cockpit windows and a third had to make an emergency landing because a battery overheated and sprayed burning electrolytes in a compartment beneath the cockpit.
The FAA decision was rapidly followed by other air safety agencies around the world, as well as by airlines operating the aircraft, resulting in the grounding of all 787s in revenue service. These failures are being investigated by the Japan Transport Safety Board (JTSB), the FAA, the US National Transportation Safety Board and by Boeing.
In a press release issued on the same day as the FAA’s grounding order, Boeing stated: “The safety of passengers and crew members who fly aboard Boeing airplanes is our highest priority. Boeing is committed to supporting the FAA and finding answers as quickly as possible. The company is working around the clock with its customers and the various regulatory and investigative authorities. We will make available the entire resources of the Boeing company to assist. We are confident the 787 is safe and we stand behind its overall integrity.”
The investigations have focused on the lithium ion batteries used in the 787. These are manufactured by Japanese company GS Yuasa, whose facilities in Kyoto have been inspected by the JTSB and the FAA. These would have to be shown to be safe before the grounding order would be lifted. The battery charger, made by US-based Securaplane Technologies, has also been subject to examination.
To save weight, Boeing designed the 787 to use electrical systems in place of tradi- tional hydraulic and pneumatic systems for braking and de-icing and other functions. In addition, lithium ion batteries are themselves lighter than nickel cadmium batteries and can, unlike the latter, be fully recharged. Moreover, lithium ion batteries provide 100% greater energy storage than nickel cadmium batteries and can release 100% more energy than a nickel cadmium battery of the same size.
In the US, the FAA has been undertaking what it called a “comprehensive review” of Boeing’s 787 design, assembly and quality assurance. This review, the administration stated, will include determining “that 787 batteries and the battery system on the aircraft are in compliance with the special condition the agency issued as part of the aircraft’s certification”.
The “special condition” is a standard procedure used with latest technology systems that cannot be covered by existing certification rules. Lithium ion batteries in aircraft are latest technology and the FAA had previously issued special conditions covering their use in the Gulfstream Aerospace G650 executive jet and the Airbus A380 Superjumbo (which uses these batteries in its lighting system). But no other airliner currently makes as much use of lithium ion batteries as the 787 does. So far, forty-nine 787s have been delivered to customers and nearly 850 more are on order.