Posted on 01/16/2013 1:18:19 AM PST by Cronos
Japan's two leading airlines grounded their fleets of Boeing 787s on Wednesday after one of the Dreamliner passenger jets made an emergency landing, the latest and most serious in a series of incidents to heighten safety concerns over a plane many see as the future of commercial aviation
All Nippon Airways Co said instruments aboard a domestic flight indicated a battery error, triggering emergency warnings to the pilots. It said the battery in the forward cargo hold was the same lithium-ion type as one involved in a fire on another Dreamliner at a U.S. airport last week.
The carrier grounded all 17 of its 787s, and Japan Airlines Co suspended its 787 flights scheduled for Wednesday. ANA said its planes could be back in the air as soon as Thursday once checks were completed. The two carriers operate around half of the 50 Dreamliners delivered by Boeing to date.
The 787, which has a list price of $207 million, represents a leap in the way planes are designed and built, but the project has been plagued by cost overruns and years of delays. Some have suggested Boeing's rush to get planes built after those delays resulted in the recent problems, a charge the company strenuously denies.
In Asia, only the Japanese and Air India have the Dreamliner in service, but other airlines are among those globally to have ordered around 850 of the new aircraft.
.. India's aviation regulator said it was reviewing the Dreamliner's safety and would talk to parts makers, but had no plans to ground the six planes operated by state-owned Air India. "We are not having any problem with our Dreamliners. The problems we had earlier were fixed," Arun Mishra, Director General of Civil Aviation, told Reuters.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
The 787 many problems are first and foremost, results of architectural-design errors made years ago. Boeing specified way too many new technologies and components whose sole purpose is to reduce cost. Not to deliver greater customer satisfaction. Then to compound this, Boeing decided to subcontract out the engineering-build of just about the whole aircraft. These contracts were awarded all over the world, selecting many who has little aerospace experience, and therefore can low-bid. Boeing management figured their job is simply to assemble parts together and laugh all the way to be bank.It’s all about doing the least work, using the cheapest or newest parts – a by-now standard and uniquely American management style to deliver the maximum possible profit. Look what happened to HP – it doesn’t make stuff anymore. It put labels on other people’s stuff. This is also the 787 Dreamliner.
The 787 is a pure electrical plane, requiring a huge power plant. But to get such a plant going, it needs a huge battery bank. Instead of using try-and-true (and aviation certified) NiCd battery, Boeing picked notorious lithium-ion, with a reputation of catching fire in notebook. Why? Yup – cut cost and weight. This battery is now the subject to the Japan fleet grounding. Boeing care more about profit then safety.
When Boeing called its new liner the Dreamliner, the name came from top management. It’s supposed to be a dream for them – their balance sheet and big bonus.
I am a pilot but not commercial, much less airline.
Taking away the feel and control of an airplane is not, in my opinion, a good idea.
This may be an example of the Peter Principle.
Ah, the mistakes of the 70s of the auto industry comes to the 10s in aircraft.
Bull.
Boeing has always been a assembler of parts and subcomponets designed and built by others. Take the engines, who’s value is equal to the rest of the aircraft. Boeing has never, ever built, designed a engine. Nor tires, nor . Take interiors. Companies make custom interiors for private jets, foreign and domestic custom desire. Boeing couldn’t touch that. This is true in the 787 and every aircraft for decades. Nobody does in house. Not Apple, not IBM, not Ford, not Honda.
I was a major airline mechanic for 25 years and don’t remember an airline grounding its own fleet, normally it’s the FAA that’s does that while the airline fights it.
Sounds like the new lithium ion battery or its charger is defective and should be pulled from service. I applaud Japan’s two carriers for taking action.
The other mechanicals that have been in the news are just growing pains and should be of no major concern.
Another major concern is the new GEnx engine that powers some 787 and 747 aircraft. The fan midshaft has fractured causing major damage and removal of the engine.
“a pure electrical plane, requiring a huge power plant. But to get such a plant going, it needs a huge battery bank”
Maybe the problem is also partly getting a good ground.
Hard to get a ground on an AIRplane, and the lightweight metals used in airframes aren’t as good a conductor. Maybe abrupt changes in atmospheric ionization come into play in this circumstance.
Sort of like when Corvettes started using fiberglass bodies - they had electrical problems because of a crappy ground.
So maybe they overdid the electric on this one.
Who at JAL is sabotaging Boeing’s Dreamliner? Inquiring minds want to know.
Too many unknowns: Even though the technologies have been
tested under “lab” conditions, we are going to see more
failures under real flight conditions. As the flight hours
build up, I predict problems with the new non-metal material.
Boeing has the MBA/PMP manager mentality. MBA/PMP types with no engineering, aviation, or Boeing experience run the place. They have an MBA and a 12 week wonder project manager certificate and are given jobs making critical decisions and they know nothing about the consequences of their decisions.
Engineers are looked down on at Boeing as the MBA/PMP types protects their turf. Somewhere I can guarnatee you there is one or more engineers that submitted change requests to fix that battery problem and somewhere there is an MBA manager that had no idea what they were talking about but denied the change request.
I still wonder if its worth it
It’s worth it to break into being a PM but you won’t learn much. It is a very liberal style organization, the PMI.
that’s the thing — I’m already a PM, have been for 4 years now. Perhaps i can learn something from PMI, and some of the Agile etc. books I read are good, but I wonder if certification is worth it — money wise!
In many companies it seems the PMPs have circled the wagons and won’t let anyone in that doesn’t have the PMP cert.
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