All Nippon Airways Executive Vice President Kiyoshi Tonomoto speaks during a press conference on its earnings in Tokyo Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013. ANA was sticking to its profit forecast despite flight cancellations caused by the worldwide grounding of Boeing 787 jets. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)
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All Nippon Airways Executive Vice President Kiyoshi Tonomoto speaks during a press conference on its earnings in Tokyo Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013. ANA was sticking to its profit forecast despite flight cancellations caused by the worldwide grounding of Boeing 787 jets. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)
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In this Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013, photo, a Boeing Co. next-generation 737 airplane sits nearly completed at the end of Boeing's 737 assembly facility in Renton, Wash. Boeing is sticking with plans to speed up production of its 787 and sees no reason to change the lithium-ion battery design at the center of the troubled plane's problems, its CEO said Wednesday, Jan. 30. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
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This photo combo of file photos shows Bill Ackman, left, of Pershing Square Capital Management, on Feb. 6, 2012, in Toronto, and financier Carl Icahn, on Feb. 7, 2006, in New York. A long-simmering spat between billionaire investors Icahn and Ackman boiled over publicly on Friday, Jan. 25, 2013. The two Wall Street titans, interviewed by phone simultaneously on CNBC, traded barbs about an old investment deal and on Ackman’s investment position in nutritional supplements distributor Herbalife Inc. (AP Photo/Pawel Dwulit, Shiho Fukada)
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In this Thursday, Jan. 10, 2013, photo, traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Stocks opened lower on Wall Street on Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013, as concerns about the government’s finances intensified, offsetting a report that showed retail sales rose in December. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
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FILE - In this Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2012 file photo, specialist Christian Sanfilippo works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, in New York. Despite many challenges, 2012 turned out to be a surprisingly good year for stocks. The Dow Jones industrial average, the Standard & Poor’s 500 and the Nasdaq composite index will all end the year substantially higher, despite losing ground in the final days of the year as concerns about the looming fiscal cliff mount. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
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FILE - In this Tuesday, March 13, 2012 file photo, President Barack Obama's speech is shown on a television monitor on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, in New York. In 2012, stocks wavered ahead of a presidential election that at times seemed too close to call, and while Obama ultimately reclaimed the White House by a comfortable margin, the Republicans retained control of the House. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
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FILE - In this Friday, July 20, 2012 file photo, workers clean the rooftop of a building near an Apple Store in Shanghai, China. Apple was one of the star performers of the first quarter of 2012 and was probably the year's most talked-about company. Apple also announced a dividend and overtook Exxon Mobil as the United States' most valuable company. Investor optimism faded though and prompted a sell-off. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)
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UPDATES with final closing figure; graphic shows daily closes of the S&P 500 index since Jan. 3, and a yearly look at the unemployment rate, the consumer confidence index and new home sales
Airbus to drop lithium-ion batteries in A350
NEW YORK (
AP) —
Airbus said Thursday it is dropping lithium-ion batteries from its new A350 airplane because of uncertainty surrounding the technology that has led to the grounding of
Boeing's 787.
The European planemaker said it has decided to revert to conventional nickel-cadmium batteries for the A350. The plane is a wide-body long-range jet rival to the 787 and is expected to make its first flight around the middle of the year.
Airbus says it does not expect the battery switch to lead to a setback in the A350's schedule.
"Airbus considers this to be the most appropriate way forward in the interest of program execution and A350 XWB reliability," spokeswoman Mary Anne Greczyn said.
Federal officials grounded the 787 last month because of problems with its lithium-ion batteries that caused one fire and forced another plane to make an emergency landing.
Airbus noted the A350 uses batteries in a different setup than the 787, making it unlikely that it would face the same problems. Its A350 flight-test program would still go forward with lithium-ion batteries.
But because the causes of the problems with the 787 batteries remain unclear, Airbus decided to make the switch "to optimize program certainty," Greczyn said. Airbus is a unit of Netherlands-based EADS NV.
The Wall Street Journal first reported on Airbus' decision to drop the lithium-ion batteries, noting the incidents with the 787 have led to industry uncertainty about future safety standards for the technology.
Tags:
boeing, airbus, science_technology, thursday, middle, incidents, technology, schedule, problems, wall street journal, grounding, new york, emergency landing, setback, federal officials, boeing 787, lithium-ion batteries, a350, conventional nickel-cadmium batteries, new a350 airplane, long-range jet rival, spokeswoman mary anne, a350 xwb reliability, a350 flight-test program, future safety standards, battery switch, netherlands-based eads, industry uncertainty, european planemaker, appropriate way, program execution, program certainty, different setup, greczyn, airbus a350, competition between airbus and boeing, airbus a330, rechargeable battery, lithium-ion battery
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