January was when the global fleet of 50 Boeing 787 Dreamliners was grounded after a couple of incidents that lead to emergency landings and smoke filling up in the cockpit. All of that had been due to an issue with the airplane’s battery which was causing it to overheat. Boeing is now testing the new lithium-ion battery system and hopes that the new batteries will be deemed up to safety standards.
In what was the first of two test flights, a Boeing 797 Dreamliner took to the skies at around 12:11 a.m. Pacific Time from Paine Field in Everett, Washington. It was a two hour test flight which was designed to show that all the systems are functioning normally, and that there are no battery related issues now. The 787’s single certification flight is up next, one that will determine if the entire fleet of Boeing’s latest airplane will be ungrounded. According to some estimates, Boeing is losing around $50 million per week while the Dreamliner is grounded. No doubt it wants to get this airplace back in the skies again! Boeing officials believe that it could be back up by the 1st of May.
Filed in . Read more about Boeing.