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Fixing the problem
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New York, Feb. 21: Boeing has developed possible fixes for the battery problems in its grounded 787 jets and could have them back in the air within two months, industry and US federal officials said.
The officials said Boeing has narrowed down the ways the lithium-ion batteries on the jetliners could fail, and believes that adding insulation between the cells of the batteries and making other changes would provide enough assurance that they would be safe to use.
Raymond L. Conner, the president of Boeing’s commercial airplane division, plans to propose the fixes in a Friday meeting with Michael P. Huerta, the head of the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Huerta is not expected to approve the changes immediately, but the meeting is likely to start a high-level discussion on the standards Boeing needs to meet as it tests the fixes and seeks to get the planes flying again.
Boeing’s plan could be a pivotal moment in the history of the innovative fuel-efficient planes. Huerta and regulators around the world grounded the planes in mid-January after a battery caught fire on one jet parked at the Boston airport and smoke forced another 787 to make an emergency landing in Japan.
Investigators have not determined what caused those problems. But Boeing’s engineers have worked closely with the FAA and outside experts to identify ways in which the batteries could have failed, and Boeing is now asking the government to sign off on a calculation that they have now come up with a safer design.
Given the risks in moving ahead, federal officials said, the FAA has insisted behind the scenes that Boeing needed to come up with changes to prevent failures at the same time as it proposed further steps to wall off problems with the batteries and vent any smoke or fire outside the planes.
Boeing officials said they had also hoped to make all the fixes at once rather than dividing them into temporary and longer-term changes. By delaying some changes, Boeing could have been exposed to more problems.
As a result, one big change under Boeing’s plan would be to redesign the batteries to place insulation inside and around each of the eight cells to minimise the risk that a short circuit or fire in one of the cells could spread to the others, as investigators have said occurred on the battery that caught fire in Boston on January 7. Boeing might also adjust how tightly the batteries are packed.
Boeing will make other changes within the batteries to reduce the chance that vibrations, swelling or moisture could cause problems, industry officials said. Boeing has already been testing some of the changes. The plane maker believes it could rebuild the batteries by next month on the 50 jets that have been delivered to airlines. But US federal officials are likely to move more slowly and demand more tests and assurances, and the final decision could rest with Huerta’s supervisors at the US transportation department.
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