Boeing 787 Said to Need Redesign of Electrical Parts After Fire

[marmar]

By Susanna Ray and Rachel Layne


Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Boeing Co. will have to rework part of the software on the 787 Dreamliner’s electrical system and its power panels after an onboard fire two weeks ago halted flight tests, three people familiar with the matter said.

A stray aluminum washer inside a power panel shorted out during a Nov. 9 flight, causing the blaze, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the details haven’t been released. The 787 test fleet will stay grounded in the meantime, one of the people said.

The company plans to modify the Dreamliner’s power panels to make sure stray materials can’t get inside, and will also change the electrical system’s software to improve power distribution, two of the people said.

Lori Gunter, a Boeing spokeswoman in Everett, Washington, where the planes are built, declined to comment.

Seattle television station KING 5 reported earlier today that a small bit of loose metal caused the fire and that Boeing would pursue a “relatively minor re-design” of the 787’s electrical system. The TV station didn’t say where it got the information. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aGM.f3gYfGxg&pos=10

[somone]

1. I thought somebody had left a tool in there...

http://blog.seattlepi.com/aerospace/archives/229378.asp

A forgotten tool is responsible for the fire that grounded Boeing's 787 Dreamliner flight-test program earlier this month, France's La Tribune newspaper reported Monday.

The tool was left in an electronics bay, causing a short circuit in an electronics panel, an unnamed source told La Tribune.

While that could seem like good news for the program -- that the fire didn't start because of some problem with the aircraft -- Boeing still must figure out why the outage in the first electronics bay spread to the second, forcing the aircraft to use its Ram Air Turbine, La Tribune reported.

France's Zodiac Aerospace provides components in the electronics bay.

[marmar]

3. That might have been the initial smokescreen.

nt

[Dennis Donovan]

2. The 787 is in development - such things happen to a/c in development...

[PSPS]

4. "in Everett, Washington, where the planes are built"

Lori Gunter, a Boeing spokeswoman in Everett, Washington, where the planes are built, declined to comment.

In fact, the planes are merely "assembled" in Everett. All the assemblies and components are actually manufactured overseas. The 787, now many years behind schedule, is the first Boeing model to pursue the popular "race to the bottom by farming out everything to the cheapest vendor" business model.

[itsrobert]

5. That's the problem when you get the lowest bidder to make the parts

They take shortcuts and try to get away with it. That's what happened to Dell after they started outsourcing their parts to China, etc.