Sunday, May 19, 2013

Dreamliner's Other Woes Draw Attention: WSJ

Boeing and Airlines Try to Improve More Systems After Fixing Battery Flaws

Updated May 19, 2013, 7:51 p.m. ET

By JON OSTROWER And ANDY PASZTOR

The Wall Street Journal

As 787 Dreamliner commercial flights resume after a lengthy grounding for battery problems, Boeing Co. and its customers are refocusing on fixing the host of other technical and mechanical issues that affect the reliability of the cutting-edge aircraft.

United Continental Holdings Inc., the sole U.S. operator of the Dreamliner, is scheduled on Monday to make its first 787 flight since the global grounding in mid-January, after batteries burned on two 787s operated by Japanese airlines. United and the other seven carriers that fly Dreamliners will be monitoring—along with Boeing—to ensure that the battery fixes approved by regulators work properly.

But they will also be working to enhance the dependability of other components and systems, from new software to improved hydraulic lines to new parts for electrical panels and generators.

According to an internal Boeing report reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, during the 15 months before burning batteries temporarily idled all 787s, the global fleet of 50 planes experienced an array of unrelated problems resulting in delays, cancellations and diversions estimated to cost airlines more than $3 million.

All new airliners go through a period of eliminating early kinks. The report, prepared in March, gives the 787 an overall reliability rating of 97.7% for the three months before the Jan. 16 grounding, corresponding to about 23 delays out of every 1,000 flights. That is comparable to the performance of the Boeing 777, one of the most dependable long-range jets, in the first year or so after its introduction in 1995.

But the 60-page document also highlights specific trouble-prone systems on the 787. It ranks carriers in terms of maintaining schedules, and offers advice about how carriers can improve.

A Boeing spokeswoman declined to comment on the report, but said company teams are implementing Dreamliner "reliability enhancements" that vary by customer and plane—a process she said is "standard for new airplane introductions." Chief Executive Jim McNerney said last month that Boeing expects additional "normal…startup issues as more airplanes enter the fleet with more carriers in the months ahead." Boeing aims to "find them, address them and ultimately ensure the 787…achieves the very high level standard for performance and reliability we promise customers at the outset of the program," he added.

The report's biggest take-away is that Dreamliners experienced problems most frequently when they were first powered up. These issues had the biggest impact on keeping the 787 from leaving on time. Those events were almost always unrelated to the jet's batteries, and they took "more time on average to clear than those detected during any other phase of flight."

The report says carriers should consider turning on the 787's lithium-ion batteries, computers and electrical system three hours prior to the first flight each day, and adding time between flights to give cockpit crews and mechanics adequate time to resolve any difficulties.

Mike Sinnett, the 787's principal engineer, told federal safety watchdogs last month the fuel-efficient jet uses about 10 times more power during initial start-up than other Boeing jetliners with more-traditional batteries.

The report also pegged about 10% of around 350 "schedule interruptions" it analyzed to "quality issues" stemming from subcontractor-provided hardware or Boeing's own assembly processes. It said that was higher than the 777's early service.

Other problems flowed from the types of software bugs that have become more common on increasingly computerized aircraft. Dreamliner operators encountered hundreds of different warning messages, which can be time-consuming and frustrating because each must be dealt with before the jet can leave the gate—even though they often aren't signs of significant problems.

Boeing touted the 787 as being able to arrive at the gate, receive service and push away from the gate in as little as 45 minutes. The report suggests that remains a longer-term goal for many carriers.

But All Nippon Airways Co., a unit of ANA Holdings Inc. has achieved that target with its 787s dedicated to domestic routes, the report says, with excellent on-time results. The first operator of the 787, ANA also received the highest marks from Boeing experts on reliability. The airline now operates 18 Dreamliners, the most of any carrier. A total of 52 Dreamliners have now been delivered world-wide.

ANA said "punctuality is a key customer service, so those involved in passenger service, ground handling and catering operations all focus on pursuing on-time flights."

Both ANA and Japan Air Lines Co.  —which has the second-largest 787 fleet, with seven Dreamliners—said they haven't received recommendations from Boeing to power on the Dreamliner well before a day's first flight or extend time at the gate.

United scored the lowest in overall reliability by some measures, with disruptions to about one in 10 Dreamliner flights, and had the highest number of so-called nuisance messages that caused delays. Such messages "may indicate poor airline familiarity" with the vagaries of the 787 and its all-new technology, according to the Boeing report. United and other airlines were able to substitute other 787s and other large jets to keep their flights on schedule.

The Boeing spokeswoman declined to comment on the experiences of specific airlines.

United spokeswoman Christen Davis said the carrier asked Boeing to perform more than 20 modifications to the airline's six Dreamliners in addition to the battery-related changes. "We believe these modifications will significantly improve reliability," she said.

Ms. Davis said the modifications to United's Dreamliners include "hardware updates to various components in the cabin, cargo handling, central maintenance and other systems."

Not every part on a jetliner needs to be in full working order for safe operation. Regulators and individual airline-maintenance rules sometimes allow planes to fly for days before requiring certain repairs to be completed. But Boeing's experts concluded that ANA and other airlines that finished such repairs most quickly benefitted from better on-time performance.

While new technology has caused unexpected headaches on the Dreamliner, its advanced onboard sensors also have been used by Boeing and airlines to monitor tens of thousands of different systems and millions of parts aboard the jet.

Mr. Sinnett receives a live notification on his Blackberry for every issue that crops up with the fleet, and those notifications are also transmitted to Boeing teams at the company operations center that monitors thousands of Boeing jets world-wide.

When a United 787 diverted to New Orleans in December, after encountering a problem with one its electrical panels, Boeing knew about the difficulty before airline officials could pick up a phone.

Tied into a world-wide maintenance network, the 787 delivers real-time data about the status of the fleet directly to Boeing facilities near Seattle. The plane's computers track more onboard systems than any other Boeing jet, and the manufacturer concluded that such in-flight monitoring made a demonstrable difference in reliability. The report estimated that 29 flights had been "saved" because the monitoring system alerted airlines to preposition parts and maintenance personnel to meet a flight.

That was the difference between matching or beating the 777's reliability record, according to the report.

—Yoshio Takahashi in Tokyo contributed to this article.

 http://online.wsj.com

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