Airbus may ditch Li-ion for A350

PARIS/NEW YORK - Europe’s Airbus is considering whether to drop lithium-ion, or Li-ion, batteries and switch back to traditional ones on its A350 passenger jet as investigators probe Boeing 787 safety incidents, several people familiar with the matter said.

By Tim Hepher And Ben Berkowitz (Reuters)

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Published: Sun 10 Feb 2013, 9:28 PM

Last updated: Fri 3 Apr 2015, 3:02 AM

The move comes amid a wider rethink in the aerospace industry on whether the powerful but delicate backup energy systems are technically “mature”, or predictable, they said. Industry executives, insurers and safety officials told Reuters the technology’s predictability was being questioned at senior levels as investigators struggle to find the cause of incidents that led to the grounding of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner.

“There is an increasing doubt over the technology,” said a person familiar with industry-wide discussions on the issue. “It may well be the future but for now it is a question of maturity. The information on the two incidents is not reassuring.”

A spokesman for EADS unit Airbus said it would study Eads outcome of the US probe. —


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