April 05--Chicago-based Boeing Co. on Friday conducted a test flight of its grounded 787 Dreamliner, a step toward returning to commercial service the highly touted plane with overheating battery problems.
The flight was "uneventful," Boeing said.
The demonstration flight was the final certification test for a new battery system in the plane model.
Boeing said it will gather and analyze the data and submit the required materials to the Federation Aviation Administration, which ordered the grounding of the 787s after two incidents of overheating lithium-ion batteries.
"We expect to deliver all of the materials to the FAA in the coming days," Boeing said in a statement. "Once we deliver the materials, we stand ready to reply to additional requests and continue in dialog with the FAA to ensure we have met all of their expectations."
All 50 787s in service worldwide were grounded in January after the airplane's lithium-ion batteries overheated on two aircraft, one on the ground in Boston and a second during a flight in Japan.
The certification flight is part of a series of tests to show whether measures Boeing has devised to fix the battery problems work as intended. A preparation flight on March 25 "went according to plan," Boeing said.
It's still unknown what caused the two batteries to overheat, and the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating. But Boeing came up with measures it says make the battery safe. It encased the battery in a steel box, changed the circuitry of the battery charger and added a titanium venting tube to expel heat and fumes outside the plane.
Once Boeing completes its testing, the Federal Aviation Administration will review the test data and decide whether to certify the fix and return the plane to service.
[email protected] -- Reuters contributed
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