Ray Lahood interview on CNBC was epic the other day.......going on and on how safe this plane was. Dreamliner Unlikely to Be Grounded, Analysts Tell CNBC


Published: Friday, 11 Jan 2013 | 4:50 PM ET
By: Philip LeBeau , Matthew J. Belvedere



The Federal Aviation Administration's special review of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner is significant but not so unusual that the new jet is in danger of being grounded, airline analysts told CNBC Friday.

Michael Huerta, the FAA head, said Friday he's confident the Boeing 787 is safe, but he remains concerned about recent incidents, including a fire and a fuel leak earlier this week.

At the same news conference, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood declared: "I believe this plane is safe and I would have absolutely no reservations about boarding one of these planes and taking a flight,

Despite the announcement, Boeing's stock closed down by 2.5 percent Friday.

The 787 will remain in service while the FAA looks into the plane's power system. The comprehensive review, announced at Huerta's news conference, will examine the design and manufacturing process and could take weeks. (Read More: FAA: Boeing 787 is Safe Despite Fire and Other Mishaps)

"This has to be put into context," Carter Copeland of Barclays Capital said in a "Squawk Box" interview before the review was announced. "The 787 has had significantly fewer in-flight diversions, significantly fewer shutdowns than we saw with the 777 in the mid-'90s."

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A Boeing 787 Dreamliner operated by United Airlines takes off at LAX
But on Friday, there were two more issues with the Dreamliner. All Nippon Airways said one of the planes landed safely in Japan after a cockpit window crack.

"Cracks appear a few times every year in other planes as well, and we do not see this as a sign of a fundamental problem with the aircraft," an ANA official told CNBC Friday. "We are confident of the safety of the Dreamliner and currently have no plan to conduct any actions to our remaining 787s and will liaise with Boeing and comply with any further instructions from the relevant authorities."

A separate ANA Dreamliner flight was found to be leaking oil from an engine after it landed Friday.

These incidents follow two others earlier this week, one of which was a battery fire Monday that caused damage to an empty Japan Airlines 787 on the ground in Boston. A day later there, another JAL Dreamliner spilled 40 gallons of fuel onto the

Boyd said that Boeing and certain airlines could be hurt if the Dreamliner were to be grounded. "Airlines like United and American, it's those kind of carriers that have looked at whole new revenue streams that could be generated by this new airplane. If those revenue streams aren't there, they're going to have to restructure themselves," he said.

The Dreamliner made its commercial flight debut in late-2011, following a series of production delays. It's the world's first carbon-composite jet. With a price tag of $207 million each, Boeing has sold nearly 900 of them and delivered 46.

The use of electric power to run on-board functions is one of the biggest innovations, which makes the new 787s lighter and more fuel efficient. "You get probably 2 to 3 percent fuel savings by going all electric," Copeland of Barclays said.

The system is powered by generators attached to the engines and powerful lithium-ion batteries, like the one that caught on fire in Boston. The maker of those batteries, GS Yuasa of Japan, said it's looking into that fire and cooperating with U.S. officials.

Boeing has said that it stands by the Dreamliner and the use of these batteries. Engineers from the company will be working side-by-side with the FAA as the agency conducts its review.

(Read More: Boeing Confident About 787 Despite 'Teething Problems')

—Phil LeBeau reports on aviation and autos; follow him on Twitter @Lebeaucarnews

—Follow Matthew J. Belvedere on Twitter @Matt_SquawkCNBC

Why fly? I wouldn't anymore.

I just flew a bunch on older 757s and felt perfectly safe. I'm more concerned on newer fancier computer-controlled planes. Don't know much about the new Dreamliner.

It's turning out to be a Nightmareliner instead of a Dreamliner.


I would have waited before committing to buy.

The Japanese seem to be on a roll with problems/disasters.

I can't wait to fly one, in a few years though.

I like the fact that I can put a convenience store burrito in my pocket after I take my shoes off, and it stays hot all the way till I'm in my seat.

Seems a bit inconsistent. No way the battery is near the cockpit

Whenever the battery goes out, they should just use hand signals.

Where are the parts manufactured? Where does assembly take place? (Not being facetious, just curious.)

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2013/01/15....

WASHINGTON — A fire that broke out last week in a Boeing 787 Dreamliner could have been hot enough to melt the carbon-fiber reinforced plastic that makes up the plane’s shell, according to the results of tests the Federal Aviation Administration performed last year.

Kind of like that mission impossible audio tape that self destructs after it's played.

When it catches fire it just melts. When it's over, just one big blob.

Randy wrote..

Why fly?

Uh.. Duh! So you can get your balls gargled by a TSA agent!

I thought they were assembled in South Carolina. Uncle Sugar will expedite some new fighter aircraft if they get into trouble. Alot of union pensions on the line in a democratic state. If the stock gets beaten up I'm going to buy some for the flip. We can always change the accounting rules so they can recognize the revenue on an order instead of the actually sale. Remember just follow the Obama brick road to oz.

"Cracks appear a few times every year in other planes as well, and we do not see this as a sign of a fundamental problem with the aircraft,"

I guess everyone is entitled to their opinion but.....

As someone who's job it is to perform structural inspections, I would disagree with the above and say that cracks are definitely a sign of a fundamental problem.

Past wing delamination problems plus all of these problems? No thanks. I'll stick to aluminum.

Seems like a fitting song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxfesUlt....

Crzymorse wrote..

... Alot of union pensions on the line in a democratic state...

The South Carolina plant is non-union last I heard.

I recently overheard a woman talking about her husband that was working as an engineer at the SC plant. She said he related to her about all the quality problems they were having. Indicated that the local workforce wasn't that great.

The problem here is that the first battery-related problem on a Dreamliner seemed to been brushed off as anomalous.

When a battery problem happens again on another Dreamliner, the odds of this becoming a major concern on all their Dreamliners have just grown exponentially.

20% hit in BA's stock price tomorrow?

Back in 2009 there was a huge fight with the unions in Seattle when Boeing decided to open the non-union plant in South Carolina. When I started hearing these stories I couldn't help but wonder if there could possibly be some union activists who have infiltrated SC and intentionally messed with the planes. Then they could point to the crappy planes made in a non-union factory. Sorry if it's too much of a stretch, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's what's going on.

Background:

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/....

A few months ago a friend of mine was on a flight that had to land due to a passenger's laptop lithium-ion battery catching fire in flight.

Now there are larger lithium batteries on board that are part of the 787's electrical system - to start up the APU?

Even though I can't afford one, it would be a while before I would trust parking a lithium-ion powered Tesla in my garage.

Yea, these batteries are already all over my house, but they also are not the 60 or 80Kwh version like in the car.

This doesn't have to do with the smoke problems or glass cracking but from what I have heard you should give them 5 years before volunteering to beta test that plane. Unlike metal once a composite cracks its tensile strength is suddenly zero. I am not familiar with their qual testing but they better damn well have done some thermal cycling. Hot runway radiation can "soften" things up a bit. The current issues bring these back of the mind concerns forward. This was designed by the engineers union and global design team what else could have gone wrong?

spence wrote..

When I started hearing these stories I couldn't help but wonder if there could possibly be some union activists who have infiltrated SC and intentionally messed with the planes. Then they could point to the crappy planes made in a non-union factory. Sorry if it's too much of a stretch, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's what's going on.

There was a time I would have believed that but I know of two cases since I came to work at Boeing where an employee has vandalized an aircraft (one was a person who cut wire bundles on a military helicopter). That **** is taken very seriously and those people were caught and prosecuted post haste.

Isn't the basis of the Dreamliner fuselage and wing technology derived from composite technologies created for the F117 and the B-2? Just curious if the de-militarized process somehow managed to screw up how to build this stuff.

And I thought they were building them both in Charleston and in Everett.

Delamination of any structural component isn't normal. Cracks are not normal, it's structural death of that component, and soon enough, bigger parts of the airframe or the whole schmeer.

And I read here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/15/31....

that the fire last week was hot enough to melt the carbon fiber fuselage. I'm betting a 20-25% drop in their stock, but what the Hell do I know?

Quote:

And I thought they were building them both in Charleston and in Everett.

They are