Boeing today marked another landmark on the 787's path to recovery from a battery scare by delivering the 51st aircraft - and the first since the fleet was grounded in mid-January - to All Nippon Airways (ANA).
Aircraft 83 was handed over to the 787's launch customer to become the first such delivery in more than four months.
Boeing now must deliver between 60 and 65 787s over the remaining 7.5 months of the year to stay on target.
"Despite the disruption in deliveries over the past several months, we still expect to deliver all the 787s we originally planned to by the end of the year," Boeing vice president of marketing Randy Tinseth writes in a blog post that announced the delivery to ANA.
The 787 fleet was grounded by regulators worldwide after two batteries overheated over a period of nine days in early January. Investigators are continuing to search for what caused the batteries to fail.
Meanwhile, Boeing developed a redesign for the battery and the battery enclosure that is intended to prevent an over-heating problem from jeopardising the safety of the aircraft in the event of another failure.
In late April, the US Federal Aviation Administration approved Boeing's redesign and the test results verifying the performance of the new battery enclosure. The decision cleared the 787 fleet to re-enter service.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
