Boeing Dreamliner Takes Another Punch

Boeing Dreamliner Takes Another Punch
by 24/7 Wall St. May 7th 2013 12:05PM
Updated May 8th 2013 7:00AM


In addition to the compensation claims against Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) for the three months that its 787 Dreamliner spent grounded due to a battery problem, the aircraft maker is also losing orders to chief rival Airbus. The CEO of Qatar Airways said today that his company may order as many as 15 of the Airbus A330 wide-body jets, at a total list price of more than $3.5 billion.

The A350 is more directly a competitor for Boeing's 777, and the new A350-1000 is poaching sales from Boeing. Last week's announcement of a new version of Boeing's 777 - called mysteriously enough the 777X - is aimed directly at the A350-1000. Both British Airways and Air Lease Corp. (NYSE: AL) have ordered several of the new A350s as replacements for the 777.

Akbar Al Baker, Qatar Airways' CEO, also said that the airline has no plans to cancel further orders of the 787 and, in fact, may double its order from 30 to 60 of the Boeing jetliners. The airlines also may order more A380s, the Airbus answer to Boeing's venerable 747.

Airbus has taken orders for 262 of the A380s, which carries a list price of $389.9 million each, compared with orders of 105 to 110 for Boeing's latest 747-8. Last month Boeing said it would cut production of the 747 from 2 a month to 1.75 a month.

Russian Carrier Ops

Hyundai Made A Flying Car (Sorta)

Hyundai Made A Flying Car (Sorta)
It is impractical! And cool! And we would like to fly it.
By Colin LecherPosted 04.22.2013 at 1:00 pm2 Comments


Flying Car Concept Hyundai via Fox News

For Hyundai's annual Idea Festival--a Wacky Races-style competition where engineers show off the most bonkers ideas they can dream up--a team unveiled this crazy flying car. Basically, it's a multirotor drone, except with a driver's seat and 16 rotors instead of the more conventional four.

So "car" is kind of a loose term here: it's not even being piloted by the person in the cockpit; someone with a remote control is standing by. (Hopefully someone the guy in the cockpit trusts.)

Yes, cool, but just remember this is part of a swarm of inventions from Hyundai's futuristic Idea Festival. Meaning you're not going to be signing up for a flying car soon.

Darn. So close. Until it's the future, see the car in action below (it comes in at about 53 seconds in).



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Sun-powered plane completes San Francisco-area test flight ahead of cross-country tour

Sun-powered plane completes San Francisco-area test flight ahead of cross-country tour

(Jeff Chiu/ Associated Press ) - The Solar Impulse is seen after landing from a test flight at Moffett Field NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., Friday, April 19, 2013. A solar-powered plane that has wowed aviation fans in Europe is set to take an early morning test flight over the San Francisco Bay area. Considered the world’s most advanced sun-powered plane, the Solar Impulse is set to take off from Moffett Field in Mountain View at first light for a two-hour practice run leading up to the start of a multi-city, cross-country tour.









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By Associated Press, Published: April 19


MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — A solar-powered plane that has wowed aviation fans in Europe took to the skies Friday over the San Francisco Bay area in a successful test flight.

Considered the world’s most advanced sun-powered plane, the Solar Impulse took off from Moffett Field in Mountain View at first light for a two-hour practice run in advance of a planned multi-city, cross-country tour.



“That’s a mythical step in aviation,” André Borschberg, one of the plane’s pilots and creators, said about flying cross-country. “We are something like between 1915 and 1920, compared to traditional aviation, when pioneers tried these non-stop flights.”

He said a flight around the world could occur in two years.

The Solar Impulse is powered by about 12,000 photovoltaic cells that cover massive wings and charge its batteries, allowing it to fly day and night without jet fuel. It has the wing span of a commercial airplane but the weight of the average family car, making it vulnerable to bad weather.

Its creators say the Solar Impulse is designed to showcase the potential of solar power and will never replace fuel-powered commercial flights. The delicate, single-seat plane cruises around 40 mph and can’t fly through clouds.

Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard, Solar Impulse co-founder and chairman, said the plane should be ready for the cross-country journey on May 1, depending on the weather.

“We like nice weather. We like sunny days,” Borschberg said.

Stops are planned in Phoenix, Dallas, Washington, D.C., and New York. Each flight leg will take 20 to 25 hours, with 10-day stops in each city.

Between Dallas and Washington, the plane will also stop at one of three other cities — Atlanta, Nashville or St. Louis.

Borschberg said the plane’s creators are close to being able to launch the non-stop flights needed to go around the world.

Using solar power, “we are close to the notion of perpetual flight,” he said.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Boeing 737s AD Could Cost Operators $10.1 Million

Boeing 737s AD Could Cost Operators $10.1 Million
FAA issued a new airworthiness directive (AD) for next-generation Boeing 737 aircraft that could cost U.S.-based operators up to $10.1 million. 
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Solar-Powered Airplane Ready for Coast-to-Coast U.S. Flight

Solar-Powered Airplane Ready for Coast-to-Coast U.S. Flight

Woodrow Bellamy III


Swiss pilots Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg, founders of the Solar Impulse project, on Thursday announced a schedule for their coast-to-coast U.S. flight with their aircraft powered exclusively by solar energy.



Piccard and Borschberg first debuted the Solar Impulse aircraft with a successful 26-hour solar powered flight over Switzerland in2010. Now the team is ready for a flight from California to New York City with stops Arizona, Texas and Washington D.C. beginning in early May. The aircraft is scheduled to reach its final destination at New York’s JFK airport in early July.

The Solar Impulse team has said that it can’t foresee commercial flights powered by solar energy in the near future, but that its goal is to promote clean technologies.

The aircraft has a wingspan of 208 ft and is powered by the 12,000 solar cells that rest below the solar panels on the upper part of the wings. The cells capture the energy of the sun and transform it into electricity, simultaneously powering the aircraft's four engines and lithium ion batteries. While the airplane is in flight, it is powered by the energy of the sun, storing excess energy in the batteries, which can than be used at night or whenever sunlight is unavailable.

“A flying laboratory for clean technologies, this prototype is the result of seven years of intense work in the fields of materials science, energy management and man-machine interface. Many of these technologies can also be applied to sectors beyond aviation,” said Borschberg.

Following the cross-country flight this year, the Solar Impulse team plans to attempt to circumnavigate the globe with its aircraft in 2015 using no jet fuel. More

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Winglets fitted to first flying A350

Winglets fitted to first flying A350


By: DAVID KAMINSKI-MORROW LONDON
03:01 19 Feb 2013
Source:


Airbus has started fitting the sweeping winglets to the first flying prototype of its A350 twinjet, ahead of its maiden flight later this year.

The winglets will give this variant of the A350 a total span of 64.8m (212ft).

Airbus's latest aircraft specification document for the A350-900, released in December 2012, indicates that the winglet sweeps 5.2m from its leading-edge attachment to its rear tip.





Airbus is aiming to fly MSN1 in mid-2013. Both of the aircraft's Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines have been delivered to the assembly line in Toulouse for podding and installation.

Germany - Air Force McDonnell Douglas F-4F Phantom II

Boeing probe uncovers battery flaw

Boeing probe uncovers battery flaw
Finding was similar to incident in Boston

Feb. 5, 2013 8:46 PM,




This photo shows the distorted main lithium-ion battery, left, and an undamaged auxiliary battery of the All Nippon Airways' Boeing 787 that made an emergency landing Jan.16. / Japan Transport Safety Board/AP file

Battery maker GS Yuasa said Tuesday that its April-December net profit fell 3.6 percent to $59.6 million from a year earlier, as demand for batteries lagged due to sluggish demand in Japan and overseas. 

The company has struggled to turn its lithium ion business to profitability. In April-December its lithium ion business posted a $78.2 million loss.

TOKYO — An investigation into a lithium ion battery that overheated on a Boeing 787 flight in Japan last month found evidence of the same type of “thermal runaway” seen in a similar incident in Boston, officials said Tuesday.

The Japan Transportation Safety Board said that CAT scans and other analysis found damage to all eight cells in the battery that overheated on the All Nippon Airways 787 on Jan. 16, which prompted an emergency landing and probes by U.S. and Japanese aviation safety regulators.

They also found signs of short-circuiting and “thermal runaway,” a chemical reaction in which rising temperature causes progressively hotter temperatures. U.S. investigators found similar evidence in the battery that caught fire last month on a Japan Airlines 787 parked in Boston.

Photos distributed by Japanese investigators show charring of six of the eight cells in the ANA 787’s battery and a frayed and broken earthing wire — meant to minimize the risk of electric shock.

All 50 Boeing 787 Dreamliners in operation are grounded as regulators and Boeing investigate the issue. The Japanese probe is focusing on flight data records and on the charger and other electrical systems connected to the damaged battery.

Aviation Today
Boeing Looks to Resume 787 Test Flights
Boeing is requesting FAA approval to resume test flights with its grounded 787 Dreamliner. 
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Boeing 787 investigation making progress -US NTSB

Boeing 787 investigation making progress -US NTSB

Sat Feb 2, 2013 12:04am GMT

* Energy Department investigator joins probe

* Boeing welcomes progress in NTSB investigation

By Andrea Shalal-Esa

WASHINGTON, Feb 1 (Reuters) - U.S. officials on Friday said they are making progress in their investigation of a battery fire on a Boeing Co 787 Dreamliner in Boston this month, as the grounding of Boeing's entire fleet Of 787s stretched into a third week.

All 50 Boeing 787s remain grounded as authorities in the United States, Japan and France investigate the Boston battery fire on Jan. 7 and a separate battery failure that forced a second 787 to make an emergency landing in Japan a week later.

The U.S. safety board said it continued to look at flight data recorded aboard the 787 aircraft involved in the Jan. 7 event at Boston airport for any information about the performance of the lithium-ion battery that caught fire, and its charging system, which was built by Securaplane, a unit of Britain's Meggitt Plc.

"Our investigators are moving swiftly and we are making progress," Kelly Nantel, a spokeswoman for the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, said after the U.S. safety board issued a seventh update on the investigation. She did not elaborate.

Boeing welcomed the news and said it continued to work closely with authorities in the United States and Japan.

The NTSB said an expert from the Department of Energy had joined the investigation, and an NTSB investigator would travel to France on Sunday or Monday with a "battery contactor", which connects the battery to the planes' electrical systems, for further tests at the equipment's manufacturer, Thales SA .

The NTSB experts at the U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center laboratories were continuing to look at a second, undamaged lithium-ion battery pulled from the same Japan Airlines plane. Both batteries were built by GS Yuasa, a Japanese company.

Initial tests, including infrared thermal imaging of each cell in the undamaged battery, found no anomalies, according to the NTSB update. It said the battery's eight cells were undergoing another scan to examine their internal condition.

U.S., Japanese and French safety inspectors - aided by industry officials - have been trying to determine what caused the battery fire on the 787 in Boston and a separate battery failure in Japan that involved smoke the following week.

The failure of investigators to identify the root cause of the incidents has sparked concerns that the 787 grounding will last longer, and hit Boeing and the airlines that operate the 787 harder than expected.

But Boeing's chief executive, Jim McNerney, told investors this week that the company planned to speed up production of the jet as planned, and had not seen any reason to question its use of lithium ion batteries on the 787.

Boeing's shares closed 1.35 percent higher at $74.87 on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

Neither the NTSB, nor the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, which is looking at a broader range of problems with the 787, have set timetables for completing their work.

Investigations are also continuing in Seattle, where Boeing builds the planes, and in Japan.

Blue Angels - A-4 Skyhawk

India - Navy Tupolev Tu-142 IN312

Would it had killed them to drop some silver paint on this bird?

The Spiroid Winglet

The Spiroid Winglet


In the late 1990s Aviation Partners Inc. (API), the developer of the blended winglet, began to flight test on a Gulfstream II a completely different winglet shape than anything that had flown before, the spiroid winglet. Theoriginal patent of the closed-loop shape winglet was originally filed in 1992 by one of API's founders. The basic idea of the spiroid winglet is to take the benefits of the blended winglet to their fullest by essentially bringing the blended winglet to loop back onto the wing. The vortices that stream off the wingtips of aircraft are a major source of drag and in the blended winglet, they have resulted in 5-7% increase in fuel efficiency by attenuating those vortices.


The first version of the spiroid winglets flown in the 1990s on the Gulfstream II were more circular in shape than the current incarnation. Flight testing of the first version resulted in refinements to the design that leads to more of an arch design with the inboard section of the spiroid moved farther aft and outboard to bring it closer to the wingtip vortex. The resultant design is now in flight testing on a Dassault Falcon 50 and the winglets and structural strengthening needed add 500 pounds to the empty weight of the jet. It was this Falcon 50 that made its first public appearance at the recent Oshkosh air show. Constructed of polished aluminum and approximately six feet in height, the new spiroids are not just intended to attenuate the wingtip vortex but to attempt to eliminate them altogether. Should this be the case, the leap in fuel savings and efficiency would be tremendous- on the order of 30% over the existing blended winglet design.


One of the side benefits of the spiroid winglet's possible ability to nearly eliminate the wingtip vortex would be in air traffic flow management at major airports. As it is right now, aircraft spacing is necessary to allow for wake vortex dissipation for the following aircraft. Aircraft with spiroid winglets would allow following aircraft to be spaced closer, in effect easing some of the congestion at major airports and improving flow efficiency.


The Dassault Falcon 50 testbed is to begin its formal flight test program this month to explore flutter, stability, and allow precise measurements of the degree of drag reduction. The aircraft will be initially limited to 250 KIAS and 0.70 Mach but as the tests progress, the flight envelope is anticipated to be expanded and may include icing tests.

Lithium Batteries Leaks Central to Boeing’s 787 Woes

Lithium Batteries Leaks Central to Boeing’s 787 Woes
January 17, 2013 8:03 AM




A Boeing 787 Dreamliner operated by United Airlines takes off at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on Jan. 9, 2013 in Los Angeles, Calif. (Credit: David McNew/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON— Lithium batteries that can leak corrosive fluid and start fires have emerged as the chief safety concern involving Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, a problem that apparently is far more serious than government or company officials acknowledged less than a week ago.

The Federal Aviation Administration late Wednesday grounded Boeing’s newest and most technologically advanced jetliner until the risk of battery fires is resolved. The order applies only to the six Dreamliners operated by United Airlines, the lone U.S. carrier with 787s. But other airlines and civil aviation authorities in other countries will be under pressure to follow suit or face possible accusations of taking unnecessary risks with public safety.

Japan’s two largest air carriers voluntarily grounded their 787s on Wednesday ahead of the FAA’s order following an emergency landing by one of the planes in Japan. On Thursday, the European Aviation Safety Agency ordered all European carriers to ground the jetliner. And the Indian government ordered Air India to ground its fleet of six Boeing 787s.

Only hours before the FAA issued its order, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood reiterated to reporters that he considers the plane safe and wouldn’t hesitate to fly one. LaHood and FAA Administrator Michael Huerta unequivocally declared the plane safe at a news conference last week even while they ordered a safety review of the aircraft.

However, as details emerged of two battery failures only 10 days apart, it became apparent that the FAA wouldn’t be able to wait for completion of its safety review before taking action. An inspection of the All Nippon Airways 787 that made an emergency landing in western Japan found that electrolytes, a flammable battery fluid, had leaked from the plane’s main lithium-ion battery. Investigators found burn marks around the damage. Japan’s Kyodo News agency quoted transport ministry investigator Hideyo Kosugi as saying the liquid leaked through the electrical room floor to the outside of the aircraft.

In the first battery incident on Jan. 7, it took firefighters 40 minutes to put out a blaze centered in an auxiliary power unit of a Japan Airlines 787. The plane was empty of passengers shortly after landing at Boston’s Logan International Airport.

The two incidents resulted in the release of flammable electrolytes, heat damage and smoke, the FAA confirmed. The release of battery fluid is especially concerning, safety experts said. The fluid is extremely corrosive, which means it can quickly damage electrical wiring and components. The 787 relies far more than any other airliner in operation on electrical systems to function.

The electrolyte fluid also conducts electricity, so as it spreads it can cause short-circuits and ignite fires. And its corrosiveness raises concern about whether a leak might weaken a key support structure of the plane, even though the 787 is the first airliner to be made primarily from lightweight composite materials that are less susceptible to corrosion than aluminum, safety experts said.

“Anytime you have leakage of battery fluid it’s a very serious situation,” said Kevin Hiatt, president and CEO of the Flight Safety Foundation in Alexandria, Va., which promotes global airline safety.

The fluid leak identified in the ANA plane was a “very significant finding,” said John Goglia, an expert on aircraft maintenance and a former National Transportation Safety Board member. It’s possible that a leak could interfere with electrical signals, making it impossible for pilots to control the plane, he said.

“There are all kinds of possibilities,” Goglia said. “They need to go in and take a look at it. I guarantee you everybody’s doing that.”

The 787 is the first airliner to make extensive use of lithium-ion batteries to help power its energy-hungry electrical systems. The batteries charge faster and can be better molded to space-saving shapes compared with other airplane batteries.

“Unfortunately, what Boeing did to save weight is use the same batteries that are in the electric cars, and they are running into the same problems with the 787 as the problems that have shown up in electric cars,” said Paul Czysz, professor emeritus of aeronautical engineering at St. Louis University.

The lithium-ion batteries in several Chevrolet Volts used for crash-testing caught fire in 2011. General Motors engineers eventually figured out that the fires were the result of a battery coolant leak that caused electrical shorts after side-impact crash tests. GM retrofitted the car with more steel to protect the battery. No fires were ever reported on real-world roads.

Jim McNerney, Boeing’s chairman, president and CEO, said the company is working with the FAA to resolve the situation as quickly as possible.

“We are confident the 787 is safe and we stand behind its overall integrity,” he said in a statement. “We will be taking every necessary step in the coming days to assure our customers and the traveling public of the 787′s safety and to return the airplanes to service.”

Mike Sinnett, chief engineer on the 787, said last week that the plane’s batteries have operated through a combined 1.3 million hours and never had an internal fault. He said they were built with multiple protections to ensure that failures “don’t put the airplane at risk.”

The lithium-ion design was chosen because it’s the only type of battery that can take a large charge in a short amount of time.

Neither GS Yuasa Corp., the Japanese company that supplies the batteries for the 787, nor Thales, which makes the battery charging system, would comment on the recent troubles.

Boeing and its customers will need to move quickly to resolve the problem. The aircraft maker has booked orders for more than 800 of the planes from airlines around the world attracted by its increased fuel efficiency.

The jet’s lightweight design makes it more of a fuel-sipper; fuel is the largest expense for most airlines. It’s so lightweight in part because it uses electricity to do things that other airplanes do with hot air vented through internal ducts. So a 787 with electrical problems is like a minivan that won’t haul kids. It goes to the heart of what the thing was built to do.

The FAA order had airlines, flight crews and passengers scrambling to figure out what to do next. Stanislaw Radzio, the captain of a LOT Polish Airlines 787 that landed at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago late Wednesday, told The Associated Press he wasn’t sure when the plane would be heading back to Poland.

“We’re grounded like everyone else,” he said. “We are very unhappy with the situation.”

He said he was told of the FAA decision during the flight from Warsaw. A captain and flight instructor at the Polish airline since 1999, Radzio said the 787 is the nicest plane he’s ever flown.

A passenger on the flight, Taras Dukyn, a student at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said he was surprised when told of the grounding by reporters, but would be willing to fly the aircraft again if the problems were fixed.

“It’s a really nice plane. Computers in every chair. It was comfortable, although I was a little hot,” he said.

FAA Proposal: Pilots Can’t Use Phones, Laptops, iPads In Cockpit At Any Time

FAA Proposal: Pilots Can’t Use Phones, Laptops, iPads In Cockpit At Any Time
January 16, 2013 3:52 PM




WASHINGTON (CBSDC) –- The Federal Aviation Administration is pushing for pilots to heed the advice given to passengers every flight: Turn off all wireless devices.

The FAA is prepared to propose an initiative that would prohibit pilots from using personal wireless devices in the cockpit for the entire flight, aiming to cut down on any distractions. The proposed prohibition comes nearly a year after Congress called for it to be implemented as FAA law.

The FAA’s latest push against personal devices in the cockpit comes after several incidents in the past few years happened as a result of pilots using personal devices, such as laptops, in the cockpit during flights. One incident in particular was the crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407. In that February 2009 tragedy, the co-pilot sent a text message about five minutes before the plane was cleared for takeoff. Shortly thereafter, the plane crashed, resulting in 50 deaths.

But the new law would not eliminate the use of personal devices when it comes to work purposes.

“The proposed rule does not prohibit the use of personal wireless communications devices or laptop computers if the purpose is directly related to operation of the aircraft,” according to the proposal.

Since 2006, the FAA has said that cellphones in the cockpit needed to be turned off once the plane has left the gate, according to USA Today.

The FAA is expected to collect comments about the proposal during a 60-day period.