Dreamliner's Battery Woes A Deja Vu Moment For Aviation Industry

NPR | March 05, 2013 3:20 p.m.

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Lithium-ion batteries sparked a crisis for Boeing's Dreamliner 787 — but the crisis is not an unprecedented one. Four decades ago, a very similar transition to new battery technology in airplanes yielded similar problems. Audie Cornish describes what happened then — and what lessons might be learned as lithium-ion batteries become the next generation that power planes.