The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded the entire global fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliner in January 2013 due to problems with its lithium-ion batteries. It impacted all 50 Dreamliner planes that were in operation globally at the time. Few airplane batteries in Japan Air blew up causing safety concern and grounding all planes. Ever since these incidents, Boeing has been working on battery issues and flight testing planes with new batteries. It appears that they may be closer to a resolution and flying the Dreamliner again soon. The Dreamliner has two lithium-ion batteries and Boeing is enclosing them in order to cool batteries and put them in separate enclosure.
On another development, Boeing is planning to spend additional $1 billion to buy 320 acres to expand its two year old facility in South Carolina where Dreamliner is assembled. The new investment is expected to create at least 2,000 additional jobs over next eight years. The South Carolina facility is the only Boeing facility outside of Washington State where Boeing’s production and development facilities are located. In addition to buying additional property for expansion, the anticipated additional investment will create an information technology center in South Carolina.