The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) may have to redesign the battery it uses in its 787 Dreamliner planes. Investigations all over the world have indicated that the battery is unsafe. Today an investigation, being conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board in the U.S., has uncovered evidence that Boeing might have to scrap its batteries and just start over.
Bloomberg spoke with Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor John Hansman, who said the results of the investigation thus far indicate that Boeing will have to redesign the battery. The Federal Aviation Administration has said that The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) can conduct test flights in its efforts to result the problems with its batteries. According to Hansman, the FAA is making sure Boeing goes the extra mile in making sure the new battery is safe.
ABC News reports that tests conducted by The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) should have indicated a greater danger of smoke and fire, but they did not. Now the FAA is getting involved. The investigation was started after an incident in January. A fire that grounded the plane started inside one of the battery’s cells and spread to the other cells.
However the tests Boeing did on its batteries did not show signs of fire at all or indication that if there was a fire, it would spread to the other cells inside the battery. Investigators will now be examining, not only the batteries themselves, but also the testing process that was used to determine if the batteries were safe.
Norwegian Air Shuttle has also announced today that The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) may have to delay the delivery of the airline’s first Dreamliner. It was scheduled to be delivered in April, but with all of the problems that have occurred with the Dreamliner, Boeing said it might not be able to deliver it in time. If the 787 isn’t delivered to Norwegian Air Shuttle in time, the company said it would enter into a contract to lease long-haul routes.
