Is the 787 a failure ?

NTSB 7th update

Synopsis:
Navy research, no result.
DoE rep has been added to the investigation.
NTSB going to France to get Thales' take on the question.
First update with *no next scheduled update*!

Full text:
|
| NTSB issues seventh update on JAL Boeing 787 battery fire
| investigation
|
| February 1
|
| WASHINGTON - The National Transportation Safety Board today
| released the seventh update on its investigation into the
| Jan. 7 fire aboard a Japan Airlines Boeing 787 at Logan
| International Airport in Boston.
|
| The auxiliary power unit battery, manufactured by GS Yuasa,
| was the original battery delivered with the airplane on
| December 20, 2012. It is comprised of eight individual
| cells. All eight cells came from the same manufacturing lot
| in July 2012. The battery was assembled in September 2012
| and installed on the aircraft on October 15, 2012. It was
| first charged on October 19, 2012.
|
| Examination and testing of an exemplar battery got underway
| earlier this week at the Carderock Division of the Naval
| Surface Warfare Center laboratories in West Bethesda, MD.
| The tests consisted of electrical measurements, mass
| measurements, and infrared thermal imaging of each cell,
| with no anomalies noted. The cells are currently undergoing
| CT scanning to examine their internal condition. In
| addition, on Thursday, a battery expert from the Department
| of Energy joined the investigative team to lend his
| expertise to the ongoing testing and validation work.
|
| NTSB investigators were made aware of reports of prior
| battery replacements on aircraft in the 787 fleet, early in
| the investigation. As reported Tuesday, Boeing, a party to
| the investigation, is providing pertinent fleet information
| which investigators will review to determine if there is
| any relevance to the JAL investigation.
|
| An investigative group continued to interpret data from the
| two digital flight data recorders on the aircraft, and is
| examining recorded signals to determine if they might yield
| additional information about the performance of the battery
| and the operation of the charging system.
|
| Next week, the NTSB battery testing team will initiate a
| non-invasive "soft short" test of all cells of the exemplar
| battery. This test will reveal the presence of any high
| resistance, small or "soft" shorts within a cell. Also, an
| NTSB investigator will travel to France with the battery
| contactor from the JAL event battery, for examination at
| the manufacturer. The battery contactor connects a wiring
| bundle from the airplane to the battery.
|
| Investigators are continuing their work in Washington and
| Japan and the team in Seattle continues to observe the
| FAA-led review of the certification process for the 787
| battery system. The flow of information from these
| observations helps to inform NTSB investigative activity in
| the US and around the world.
|
http://www.ntsb.gov/news/2013/130201b.html

--bks