Aircraft & Propulsion

Air India’s first of six grounded aircraft will resume commercial flights Wednesday on domestic routes and May 22 on international routes, India’s minister for civil aviation Ajit Singh said Tuesday.

United Airlines, the US launch customer for the Boeing 787 with six in its fleet, said it will restart Dreamliner service May 20 with domestic flights.

Air India began test flights of the first of the Boeing 787s fitted with the new battery package on Thursday.

All Nippon Airways (ANA), launch customer for the Boeing 787, said it will resume Dreamliner services from June 1, following the completion of a series of battery system modifications, safety checks and test flights.

EasyJet last week flew back a tonne of volcanic ash from Iceland as part of its contribution to an experiment planned in conjunction Airbus and Nicarnica, a spin-off company of the Norwegian Institute for Air Research, to test Airborne Volcanic Object Identifier and Detector (AVOID) volcanic ash detection technology this summer.

Airbus and Dell have struck a deal to use Dell Latitude laptops as electronic flight bags (EFB) on A320 family aircraft.

The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has contracted Chesapeake Defense Services to conduct a new round of computed tomography (CT) scans of “aircraft batteries, aircraft battery cells, and other aircraft battery-related components used on Boeing 787 aircraft.”

Aircraft News

Top All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Boeing executives flew aboard the airline’s first 787 proving flight Sunday.

Ethiopian Airlines resumed Boeing 787 Dreamliner service Saturday with a flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, making it the first carrier to relaunch 787 flights since the aircraft was grounded in January.

All Nippon Airways (ANA), the Boeing 787 launch customer and largest Dreamliner operator with 17 in its fleet, will conduct a 787 proving flight Sunday, an initial step toward resumption of commercial flights with its 787s.

LOT Polish Airlines plans to resume Boeing 787 operations June 5, initially deploying the type on its Warsaw-Chicago service.

Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has approved Boeing’s fix for the 787’s battery system.

Boeing has started 787 battery system modifications on 10 in-service fleet aircraft and believes modifications will be completed on nearly all 50 in-service fleet aircraft by mid-May.

A US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) hearing on the Jan. 7 Japan Airlines Boeing 787 fire shed little light on the incident’s root cause.

Extensive testing on lithium ion batteries during the 787 certification process led Boeing to believe that “significant overcharging” was the only occurrence that would cause the batteries to vent fire, according to a senior Boeing executive.

Air India is preparing to have its six Boeing 787s back into service by the middle of May, according to airline officials in Mumbai.

Boeing is deploying 10 teams comprised of 300 specialists around the world to perform FAA-approved modifications on the 50 787s that were in service when the Dreamliner fleet was grounded Jan. 16.

FAA has approved Boeing’s design modifications for the 787 battery system, paving the way for the lifting of the grounding of the worldwide Dreamliner fleet imposed Jan. 16.

Boeing’s more than three-month 787 crisis appears to be over following FAA’s approval of the manufacturer’s fix for the aircraft’s battery system.

Boeing has been given permission by FAA to resume pre-delivery 787 production flights and operated a production flight Thursday with an All Nippon Airways-bound 787.

FAA is poised to approve Boeing’s fix for the 787’s battery system Friday, according to widespread reports and indications.

Reports from around the world indicated the Boeing 787 may be cleared to fly commercially by FAA this month and perhaps within the next week.

US Airways has received FAA certification on its widebody Airbus A330 aircraft for SafeRoute, a set of four flight deck applications that will provide enhanced operational safety and efficiency in all phases of flight as part of the FAA’s NextGen implementation program.

FAA administrator Michael Huerta gave no indication of how close the agency is to approving Boeing’s fix for the 787’s battery system in testimony before Congress.