TPT May 2013

Global Marketplace

United Technologies (Hartford, Connecticut), which makes the auxiliary power unit that connects to the batteries, was working with Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), executives said. Dan Coulom, a spokesman, said any aid provided does not extend beyond the company’s role as a supplier. › In early March the lithium-ion battery was key to resumption of 787 service. Boeing faced penalties from the eight airlines that operate the grounded $200mn plane, as well as from those whose deliveries had been delayed. Of related interest . . . › Given the potential for a prolonged investigation into what caused batteries on two Boeing 787 jets to catch fire or emit smoke in January, the American company’s European rival Airbus said that it had abandoned a plan to employ the same battery technology in its forthcoming widebody jet, the A350-XWB. Airbus said on 15 February that it was informing airline customers of its decision against lightweight lithium-ion batteries for powering a number of the A350’s onboard systems. The planemaker intends to revert to conventional nickel-cadmium batteries, already in extensive use on Airbus models. Airbus completed assembly of its first test version of the A350 late last year, and initial ground tests of the

One of the respondents said that GS Yuasa, the Japanese supplier, had doubled the number of its tests on the advice of a “non-advocate review” panel created by Boeing with officials from some of the companies. Automaker representatives on Boeing’s panel examined GS Yuasa’s testing protocol and were surprised to learn that more than 90 per cent of the batteries were passing quality control, two of the sources told Bloomberg . In the electric-vehicle industry, the figure is around 60 per cent, they said. According to the reporters Susanna Ray, Tim Catts and Alan Levin, a spokesman at Kyoto-based GS Yuasa declined to comment. The Japan Transport Safety Board said on 5 March it had ended testing of the company’s batteries and had not found anything “notably unusual.” The Boeing panel – along with engineers from GS Yuasa and the France- based provider of onboard and ground systems Thales SA – identified “improvements that could be made to the battery, the battery system, and the airplane installation that would provide three distinct layers of protection,” said Marc Birtel, a spokesman at Boeing in Washington. “Among the items in this comprehensive set of solutions were improvements to the production process.” › Boeing “reached out to a variety of industry experts, including GE but not limited to us,” David Joyce, CEO of GE Aviation (Evendale, Ohio), said in February. “They’ve assembled a group of very high-technology people to help them and just to share expertise.”

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