No one wants to be on a plane with batteries that are liable to explode, and since Boeing grounded its 787 Dreamliners after such an incident, no one has had to be. Except for the test crew that took one into the yesterday. But don’t worry, it all turned out just fine.
The flight was intended to get some more information about those pesky sometimes-bursting-into-flames lithium-ion batteries, and took off from Boeing Field in Seattle. The battery lasted two hours and 19 minutes, and all in all, “The crew reports that the flight was uneventful,” as Boeing put it in a statement. The FAA cleared such test flights on Thursday, and although there are none planned for today, you can bet there’ll be some more in the coming days.
Boeing has said the battery information its gathered on the flight is part of its flaming-battery investigation, but declined to share anything more than that. And although a uneventful flight is definitely good for those on it, who knows how much light that could actually shed on what is wrong.
Boeing is currently working on an intermediate battery redesign that could mitigate issues in the near future, so hopefully they’re getting the info they need to pull it off. It’s a bummer to see all these birds grounded. [Reuters]