"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 Airways 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 tactic, 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 lighter, 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.