BY KATIE BRENNAN Boeing saw record quarterly revenue as it beat the street’s expectations for the fourth quarter earnings Wednesday. However, much of that good news was overshadowed by reports Boeing knew about problems with the Dreamliner 787 battery before those problems caused complications that grounded the planes this month. “Now we’ve learned from All Nippon airways that it changed the batteries on its fleet of 787s ten times in the last year...All Nippon airlines says it did tell Boeing but interesting it didn’t inform Japanese transportation authorities.” -BBC The batteries caused a fire on one plane and smoke on another, prompting the FAA to ground the planes and begin investigations two weeks ago. The New York Times first broke the news Boeing knew about the problems and has Boeing’s reaction... “...Boeing officials said the airline’s replacement of the batteries also suggested that safeguards were activated to prevent overheating and keep the drained batteries from being recharged. [They] also acknowledged that the new batteries were not lasting as long as intended. But All Nippon said that the batteries it replaced had not expired.” Of course, the 2012 fiscal year wrapped up before the battery controversy began, so it didn’t drag on this round of Boeing earnings... but an analyst on CNBC points out , more is at stake than just Boeing’s future revenue. “It is an issue which the industry faces and I very much hope we find some proper answers so as not to damage the public confidence in flying.” That’s a legitimate concern. In fact, Flightglobal reports Elon Musk , the founder of Space X and owner of electric carmaker Tesla, says Boeing’s batteries are extremely unsafe. Musk told the aviation news site... “Unfortunately, the pack architecture supplied to Boeing is inherently unsafe...it is simply a matter of time before there are more incidents of this nature.” So far, investigations into the battery mishaps have turned up inconclusive.