Airbus to Drop Lithium-Ion Batteries From Newest Jet

Updated February 15, 2013, 4:01 a.m. ET

By ANDY PASZTOR
The Wall Street Journal

European plane maker Airbus is dropping lithium-ion batteries from its newest jet due to concerns that regulatory uncertainty could delay initial deliveries of A350 aircraft, according to industry officials familiar with the details.

The decision, which was communicated to some of the company's airline customers on Thursday, is the latest sign of a growing industrywide pullback from such technology as a result of two instances of burning lithium-ion batteries aboard Boeing Co.'s 787 jets last month.

The incidents prompted an indefinite world-wide grounding of the 787 Dreamliner fleet, while the resulting investigations and regulatory reviews have raised questions about future safety standards for rechargeable lithium batteries installed aboard planes.

Airbus, a unit of European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co., originally intended to use four rechargeable lithium batteries on each A350 to provide electrical power on the ground and backup power in the air. But now, according to these officials, the plane will be delivered with conventional nickel-cadmium battery systems.

Airbus expects the plane to make its first flight this summer, and then to undergo a series of flight tests and seek certification from European aviation authorities by early 2014. Airbus has said it expects the A350 to begin flying passengers by the middle of next year.

The decision to jettison lithium technology, according to these officials, was prompted primarily by schedule rather than safety considerations. Airbus still intends to start testing the A350 in the air with lithium-ion batteries aboard, since that configuration is ready to start the early flights. That indicates the plane maker's belief that its battery design is safe, since Airbus personnel will be conducting the tests.

But when the plane is officially certified and eventually delivered to start commercial flights, it will be equipped with only conventional batteries.

In the wake of Boeing's battery woes, various Airbus and industry officials publicly suggested that the European plane maker eventually might reconsider its commitment to lithium batteries. But Thursday's messages to future A350 operators highlight how quickly Airbus opted to take another path, even before definitive findings are released about what caused the Boeing incidents.

Industry officials said that Airbus is intent on avoiding delays in the event that months from now—when the A350's testing schedule is locked in—regulators from Europe or the U.S. decide to impose more-stringent standards to prevent fires or ruptures of lithium batteries.

Makers of business jets also have their share of concern with the future regulation of such rechargeable power systems. Long before the Boeing incidents, the Federal Aviation Administration mandated replacement of lithium-ion batteries with conventional batteries on one Cessna Citation business-jet model after a fire occurred while the plane's battery was being recharged on the ground.

In the roughly six years since the FAA established safety criteria for the 787, both the agency and an industrywide standard-setting group issued tougher testing requirements for lithium batteries on aircraft. The recent 787 incidents, however, have prompted scrutiny of the FAA's original standards.

Looking ahead, Airbus and other manufacturers worry that additional design and testing changes may be necessary to comply with further revisions of those standards.

Since the 787 incidents, Boeing officials have reiterated their intention to stick with lithium batteries, which are lighter and more powerful than conventional ones.

Airbus, by contrast, previously signaled its ambivalence about keeping lithium-ion technology on the wide-body A350. At the end of January, Fabrice Bregier, the company's chief executive, was quoted by Reuters saying that if the A350's lithium-battery design has to change "because the authorities reach the conclusion that the technology is not mature, then we have all the time to do this" before initial deliveries, slated for the second half of 2014.

—Jon Ostrower contributed to this article.

Source:   http://online.wsj.com