[Skybird]

Japan has grounded all Dreamliners after a battery fire. It is not the first serious incident with Boeing new dream which now threatens to become an expensive nigthmare for Boeing. On Professional Pilots rumour Network, and internet platform for professional pilots, many pros express doubts on the concept of the new airplane.

The new Boeing is heavily depending on use of lithium ion batteries, far more than other airplanes since it has replaced many hydraulic and mechanical systems with electrical ones. Some pilots expressed concerns over putting so many of these batteries, which are known to explode and go up in flames occasionally in laptops, cellphones and pedelecs as well, into an airframe "largly made of plastic". The general design of these batteries and their isolation is being doubted, too.

Also, dissatisfaction with Boeings' crisis management is being voiced, too, saying that they made no progress, whereas Airbus with intial problems with its A380 step by step adressed them and cleaned them up. Sinc ethe serial production has been driven up by Boeing recently, the hiuger production activity also is assumed to have something to do with insufficient quality of components, some pilots assume.

In the worst scenario, the electrical design of the Dreamliner is insufficient and the batteries cannot be used. In this case, Boeing practically would need to replace the e-system and design a new Dreamliner around the replacement system.

In the imminent past, several Dreamliners ran into problems, from cracks in the cockpit windows and failing generators over failures in the braking system and engine problems to fires in the freight compartment and melting battery and cable isolations. Many of these incidents were not taken note of by a wide public, but some of them led to emergency landings by Dreamliners.

Also noteworthy is that due to the heavy dependency on electrical power, these new batteries represent a new technological design with specifications for which no previous certification standards existed. The negotations between Boeing and the American authorities were unusually long over these items alone, and in principle the batteries are not properly certified by the authority on grounds on any proven standards.

Some pilots get quoted with making their position clear: "If it is Boeing, I am not going."

I wonder if "new materials" maybe get overestimated in the industry, and their longevity and robustness gets overestimated. I think of the unforseen microcracks building in the wings and airframe of the A380, but Boeings as well.
American and Japanese authorities are running investigations. I think the Poles are about to do that as well. So far, some 40 787s are in service wordwide.