Boeing prepares to get Dreamliners back in the air

Now that Boeing has wrapped up its testing of the new battery system aboard the Dreamliner, it’s up to the FAA to determine when the grounded planes can be retrofitted and returned to service.

The FAA should have all the data from Friday’s two hour test flight and all the ground testing by mid-week, if it doesn’t have it all already. It will be up to the FAA to sign-off on the retrofit before Boeing can begin work on any of the planes.

The Seattle Times reports the FAA likely won’t wait for the National Transportation Safety Board to hold hearings on the 787 later this month before making its decision. Japan’s version of the FAA will also have to approve the retrofit, but that’s expected to come quickly after the FAA makes its ruling.

The one hour, 49-minute flight on Friday put Dreamliner number-86 through its paces with the new battery system, testing normal and irregular conditions. Some of those irregular conditions included losing engines, generators and other systems.

It will likely be a few more months before all of the grounded 787’s will be back in the air. In addition to the time it will take to retrofit the planes, the airlines need to build the 787’s back into their flight schedules. Many of them have taken the Dreamliner off their schedules until June.

There are 50 Dreamliners that were in service at the time of the grounding. They need to be fixed. There are about 20 Dreamliners sitting on the ground at Paine Field that are complete but need the new battery system before they can be delivered.

Boeing has lined up a series of teams that will travel to the grounded airplanes to make the repairs. Each will have the new battery system in hand. They will have to drill holes in the fuselage to fit the new venting system. They will be installing two new lithium-ion batteries, one under the cockpit and one just behind the wings.

The batteries will be inside newly designed boxes that should contain any fire or smoke. Boeing said they’ve been designed to prevent any fire from happening. In one of the tests, Boeing tried to start a fire inside with propane and couldn’t. The eight internal battery cells have also been wrapped in insulation and have more space between them.

The NTSB has two hearings planned for this month about the Dreamliner. The first will be next week. It’s really just a forum about lithium-ion batteries and their uses in transportation. A two day hearing later in the month will go into the fire in the 787 at Boston’s Logan Airport. A U.S. Senate committee will hold a hearing on April 16 to update members on the progress of the 787 investigation.