Bloomberg
by Susanna Ray
A Boeing Co. 787 Dreamliner’s emergency landing in Texas followed a fire in an equipment bay that knocked out the jet’s electricity during a test flight, a person with knowledge of the matter said.
The loss of power robbed the pilots of the primary cockpit displays and some of their electronic flight controls as the plane neared the Laredo, Texas, airport yesterday, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the details aren’t public. The plane landed safely, Boeing said.
A ram-air turbine, which has a propeller spun by onrushing air, popped out of the bottom of the jet to generate backup power, the person said. Boeing uses more electricity on the Dreamliner than on traditional airliners, with power levels that are five times higher than on the company’s 767.
Yesterday’s incident came at the end of a test flight to from Yuma, Arizona, and refocused attention on a plane whose commercial debut has been delayed six times as Chicago-based Boeing struggles with new materials, parts shortages, redesign work and a new production system. Boeing now expects the 787 to enter service around February.
“We are continuing to gather data regarding this event,” Lori Gunter, a Boeing spokeswoman, said in an e-mail.
Smoke was observed in the main cabin as the plane approached the Laredo airport, Gunter said. Lynn Lunsford, a spokesman for the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, said the jet carried a “full complement of test-flight people,” who were evacuated using the plane’s emergency chutes.
Six Hours
The flight to Laredo lasted about 6 hours and 5 minutes before the jet touched down at 2:47 p.m. local time, according to plane-tracking site FlightAware.com.
Boeing fell 96 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $69.25 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares slid to $68.80 at 7:59 p.m. after the close of regular trading.
The Dreamliner involved in the incident is the same plane that was returned to the factory for two weeks in January so workers could clean out debris found in the fuel tanks. The jet has made 179 test flights spanning more than 558 hours since its Dec. 22 maiden flight, according to Boeing’s website.
Boeing’s test-flight program has encountered bumps since the first 787 flew Dec. 15. That jet experienced a power surge before takeoff during tests in Roswell, New Mexico, in September and had to be parked while crews flew in a replacement engine.
The power plants for the first four planes are built by Rolls-Royce Group Plc, which Boeing blamed for the latest delay to the plane’s entry into service, originally scheduled for May 2008. A newer version of the engine blew out on a test bed in the U.K., Rolls-Royce said in August.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-09/boeing-787-test-plane-makes-emergency-landing-in-texas.html