英闻天下——409 Boeing: Dreamliner to Fly Again in Weeks

 　　Aircraft maker¹ Boeing says commercial flights of the grounded 787 Dreamliner jets could resume within weeks.

 

　　"We are going to be dependent upon, as we move through the certification process, to determine when we actually get back in the air in terms of flight. Now what Mike had said previous is that we don't anticipate that being months, we are thinking more along the line of weeks as we do that."

 

　　That was Boeing CEO, Raymond Conner speaking in Japan where the country's All Nippon Airways² were the launch customer.

 

　　A computer generated image of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. [Photo: Xinhua]

 

　　Conner's comments come just days after the US airline regulator approved Boeing's plans to redesign the lithium-ion batteries used on the plane.

 

　　All 50 Dreamliners were grounded from operation earlier this year following a string of incidents in which batteries on the planes emitted smoke.

 

　　Boeing chief project engineer Michael Sinnett says they still don't know the exact cause of the overheating, but they have a new design which will prevent batteries from overheating nevertheless.

 

　　It's a tactic³, he says, has worked for them before.

 

　　"When we have a part fail on an airplane and we don't understand what the specific root cause is and we make appropriate corrections to improve the part, whatever that part may be, and this has served us well in the past. In the event of the Logan and Takamatsu, we may never get to the single root cause."

 

　　The Dreamliner 787 is the first plane in the world to use lithium-ion batteries, which make planes lighter⁴, hold more power and recharge more quickly.

 

　　Boeing has so far delivered 50 Dreamliners and is said to have received some 470 more orders from around the world.

1 maker   

n.制造者，制造商

参考例句：

• He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。

2 AIRWAYS   

航空公司

参考例句：

• The giant jets that increasingly dominate the world's airways. 越来越称雄于世界航线的巨型喷气机。
• At one point the company bought from Nippon Airways a 727 jet. 有一次公司从日本航空公司买了一架727型喷气机。

3 tactic   

n.战略，策略；adj.战术的，有策略的

参考例句：

• Reducing prices is a common sales tactic.降价是常用的销售策略。
• She had often used the tactic of threatening to resign.她惯用以辞职相威胁的手法。

4 lighter   

n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级

参考例句：

• The portrait was touched up so as to make it lighter.这张画经过润色，色调明朗了一些。
• The lighter works off the car battery.引燃器利用汽车蓄电池打火。