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Category: <span>Rolls Royce</span>

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Rolls Royce Trent Engine Defection Causes Singapore Airlines Airbus toReturn to Origin

What: Singapore Airlines Airbus A380-800 en route from Singapore to Frankfurt
Where: Singapore
When: Mar 27th 2012
Who: 430 passengers
Why: While en route, the Airbus’s number three engine surged. Pilots shut down the engine and returned to Singapore.

The engine involved was one of four Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines. A “surge” refers to “a disruption of airflow that affects an engine’s normal operation.”

A Nov 2010 engine explosion that forced an emergency landing in Singapore initiated a grounding of Qantas entire A380 fleet in order to determine the safety of the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines.

Passengers were provided an alternative flight to Germany.


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Bangkok-Another Rolls Royce/Trent Engine Fails


Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Rainer Bexten

What: Qantas Boeing 747-400 en route from Bangkok (Thailand) to London Heathrow,EN
Where: Bangkok
When: May 20th 2011
Who: 308 passengers
Why: After takeoff from Bangkok, the engine vibration and temperature increased beyond the norm in one engine and the engine is reported to have salled. That (Rolls Royce) engine was shut down, and the pilots returned to Bangkik to make a safe landing with the remaining three engines. It has not yet been announced if the problem is due to the internal pipe irregularities which were indicated in an airworthiness directive just released, but with problems that go back several years.

By the look of cursory evidence, it appears this could be the same manufacturing defect in an oil pipe, which led to an internal oil leak in the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine that failed in a Qantas A380 in 2010 causing a midair explosion, but investigators will have to reveal the details.


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53 Trent Engines Removed from Service

Rolls-Royce removed 53 Trent Engines from service over pipe thickness problems in the oil feed pipes. Thinned pipe walls and cracking from a manufacturing defect led to an internal oil fire on a Qantas Airways Airbus A380, which made an emergency landing in Singapore in 2010. This is the flaw that led to Qantas grounding its entire A380 fleet, and other carriers like Singapore Airlines. Several modification standards were published: FW48020, FW59326, and FW64481.

The ATSB does not expect a complete analysis of the data it is gathering on these engines until May 2012.

Rolls-Royce wins $2.2bn TotalCare® deal from Emirates

Monday, 14 February 2011—

Rolls-Royce, the global power systems company, has won a $2.2bn TotalCare® long term services contract from Emirates, covering Trent engines for 70 Airbus A350XWB aircraft. The agreement will bring the airline’s Rolls-Royce powered fleet of 128 aircraft, in service and on order, under TotalCare® arrangements.

Tim Clark, President – Emirates Airline, said: “Emirates’ 70 A350XWB aircraft on order will play an important role in our growth when they come online in the next few years. This TotalCare® contract with Rolls-Royce is an important step in ensuring our A350XWB engine life cycle costs are managed effectively and maintained to the highest standards. Already current users of TotalCare®, we look forward to maintaining this relationship with Rolls-Royce to drive additional operational improvements.”

Mark King, Rolls-Royce, President  – Civil Aerospace, said: “We are delighted to sign this contract with Emirates, a valued customer with three Trent engine family members already in service. With this contract all of Emirates’ Rolls-Royce powered fleet are, or will be, supported by TotalCare® packages that add significant value and allow customers to optimise their operations.”

TotalCare® long term service agreements, in place on 90 per cent of all Trent engines, are designed to minimise customer financial risk and enhance operational performance and reliability, allowing operators to concentrate on their core business.

The new TotalCare® contract for Trent XWB engines comes two months after Rolls-Royce won a $1.2bn TotalCare® contract for Trent 700 engines powering 27 Airbus A330s and Trent 800 engines powering 21 Boeing 777s.

  1. 1. Rolls-Royce is a world-leading provider of power systems and services for use on land, at sea and in the air, and has established a strong position in global markets – civil aerospace, defence aerospace, marine and energy.
  2. As a result of this strategy, Rolls-Royce has a broad customer base comprising more than 500 airlines, 4,000 corporate and utility aircraft and helicopter operators, 160 armed forces, more than 2,500 marine customers, including 70 navies, and energy customers in nearly 120 countries, with an installed base of 54,000 gas turbines.
  3. Annual underlying revenues were over £11 billion in 2010, of which more than half came from the provision of services. The firm and announced order book stood at £59.2 billion at 31 December 2010, providing visibility of future levels of activity.
  4. Rolls-Royce employs 39,000 skilled people in offices, manufacturing and service facilities in over 50 countries.  Over 11,000 of these employees are engineers.
  5. In 2010, Rolls-Royce invested £923 million on research and development, two thirds of which had the objective of further improving the environmental performance of its products, in particular reducing emissions.
  6. Rolls-Royce supports a global network of 28 University Technology Centres, which connect the company’s engineers with the forefront of scientific research. 
  7. The Group has a strong commitment to apprentice and graduate recruitment, and to further developing employee skills.

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Australian Lawsuit against Rolls Royce Possible

Australian Transport Safety Bureau has issued a safety alert.

The Qantas A380 Rolls Royce engine failure was due to a (fatigue) cracked tube. The Australian Trade Practices Act allows Qantas to pursue a legal solution against rolls Royce, especially as it appears they were aware of engine problems (fatigue cracking in the thin side of an unevenly bored oil tube) but did not inform Qantas. If there were flawed oil tubes on the earliest “A-version” Trent 900s, have some of these survived in lagter models? Qantas no longer uses A version engines.

George’s Point of View

Good for Qantas, if they are going to sue.

Now the passengers should sue Quantas for the close miss to a possible tragedy and for the mental stress.

The Australian Report:
Manufacturing problem potential factor in QF32 engine failure
Date: 02 December 2010

The ATSB has issued a safety recommendation about potential engine problems in some Airbus A380 aircraft.

The safety recommendation identifies a potential manufacturing defect with an oil tube connection to the high-pressure (HP)/intermediate-pressure (IP) bearing structure of the Trent 900 engine installed in some A380 aircraft.

The problem relates to the potential for misaligned oil pipe counter-boring, which could lead to fatigue cracking, oil leakage and potential engine failure from an oil fire within the HP/IP bearing buffer space.

In response to the recommendation Rolls Royce, affected airlines and safety regulators are taking action to ensure the continued safe operation of A380 aircraft. The action involves the close inspection of affected engines and the removal from service of any engine which displays the suspected counter-boring problem.

The ATSB will hold a media briefing tomorrow (Friday 3 December 2010) at 10.30am to accompany the release of its preliminary factual investigation report into the QF32 occurrence. ATSB Chief Commissioner Mr Martin Dolan will present the known facts gathered from the investigation and highlight the key safety issues that have resulted from the investigation to date.

Summary
On 4 November 2010, at 0157 Universal Coordinated Time (UTC), an Airbus A380 aircraft, registered VH-OQA (OQA), being operated as Qantas flight 32, departed from runway 20 centre (20C) at Changi Airport, Singapore for Sydney, New South Wales. On board the aircraft were five flight crew, 24 cabin crew and 440 passengers (a total of 469 persons on board).

It was reported that shortly after departing Singapore the No. 2 engine failed. The aircraft was returned to Singapore for a safe landing after reducing its fuel load. The investigation is continuing.

A report has not yet been released for this investigation.

Preliminary report to be released 10.30am Friday, 3 December 2010

On 4 November 2010, at 0157 Universal Coordinated Time (UTC), an
Airbus A380 aircraft, registered VH-OQA (OQA), being operated as
Qantas flight 32, departed from runway 20 centre (20C) at Changi
Airport, Singapore for Sydney, New South Wales. On board the
aircraft were five flight crew, 24 cabin crew and 440 passengers (a
total of 469 persons on board).

It was reported that shortly after departing Singapore the No. 2
engine failed. The aircraft was returned to Singapore for a safe
landing after reducing its fuel load. The investigation is
continuing.

A report has not yet been released for this investigation.

Preliminary report to be released 10.30am Friday, 3 December
2010

Recommendation

Safety Recommendation AO-2010-089-SR-012

On 4 November 2010, at 0157 Universal Coordinated
Time (UTC), an Airbus A380 aircraft, registered VH-OQA (OQA), being
operated as Qantas flight 32, departed from runway 20 centre (20C)
at Changi Airport, Singapore for Sydney, New South Wales. On board
the aircraft were five flight crew, 24 cabin crew and 440
passengers (a total of 469 persons on board).

Following a normal takeoff, the crew retracted the
landing gear and flaps. The crew reported that, while maintaining
250 kts in the climb and passing 7,000 ft above mean sea level,
they heard two almost coincident ‘loud bangs’, followed shortly
after by indications of a failure of the No 2 engine.

The crew advised Singapore Air Traffic Control of the
situation and were provided with radar vectors to a holding
pattern. The crew undertook a series of actions before returning
the aircraft to land at Singapore. There were no reported injuries
to the crew or passengers on the aircraft. There were reports of
minor injuries to two persons on Batam Island, Indonesia.

A subsequent examination of the aircraft indicated
that the No 2 engine had sustained an uncontained failure of the
Intermediate Pressure (IP) turbine disc. Sections of the liberated
disc had penetrated the left wing and the left wing-to-fuselage
fairing, resulting in structural and systems damage to the
aircraft. The No 2 engine was removed from the aircraft and
disassembled in an authorised engine workshop for examination,
under the supervision of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau. In
addition, a large section of liberated IP turbine disc was also
recovered from Batam Island for examination. Those examinations are
ongoing.

As a result of this occurrence, a number of safety
actions were immediately undertaken by Qantas, the Australian Civil
Aviation Safety Authority, Airbus, Rolls-Royce plc, and the
European Aviation Safety Agency.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has prepared a
Preliminary Factual Report on the investigation of the occurrence.
That report will be publically released on 3 December 2010.

Recent developments

Recent examination of components removed from the
failed engine at the Rolls-Royce plc facility in Derby, United
Kingdom, have identified the presence of fatigue cracking within a
stub pipe that feeds oil into the High Pressure (HP) / Intermediate
Pressure (IP) bearing structure. While the analysis of the engine
failure is ongoing, it has been identified that the leakage of oil
into the HP/IP bearing structure buffer space (and a subsequent oil
fire within that area) was central to the engine failure and IP
turbine disc liberation event.

Further examination of the cracked area has
identified the axial misalignment of an area of counter?boring
within the inner diameter of the stub pipe; the misalignment having
produced a localised thinning of the pipe wall on one side. The
area of fatigue cracking was associated with the area of pipe wall
thinning

Critical Safety Issue

Misaligned stub pipe counter-boring is understood to be related
to the manufacturing process. This condition could lead to an
elevated risk of fatigue crack initiation and growth, oil leakage
and potential catastrophic engine failure from a resulting oil
fire.

As a result of the identified critical safety issue, the
Australian Transport Safety Bureau issues the following safety
recommendation:

Safety Recommendation AO-2010-089-AR-012

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau recommends
that Rolls-Royce plc address the safety issue and take actions
necessary to ensure the safety of flight operations in transport
aircraft equipped with Rolls-Royce plc Trent 900 series
engines.

Date: 04 Nov 2010 Investigation Status: Active
Time: 0201 UTC Investigation Type: Occurrence Investigation
Location: overhead Batam Island, Indonesia Occurrence Type: Powerplant / Propulsion
State: International Occurrence Class: Mechanical
Occurrence Category: Serious Incident
Report Status: Pending Highest Injury Level: None

Aircraft Details

Aircraft Manufacturer: Airbus
Aircraft Model: A380
Aircraft Registration: VH-OQA
Serial Number: 0014
Type of Operation: Air Transport High Capacity
Damage to Aircraft: Serious
Departure Point: Singapore
Destination: Sydney, NSW

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Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire. Where There’s Fire, Will There Be Passengers?

George’s Point of View

The biggest consequence in this Trent 900 engine brouhaha may be the Rolls Royce reputation.

While the company’s engineering skills have not suddenly degraded overnight, confidence in Rolls Royce certainly has. If, as the Australian Transport Safety Bureau says, the internal fire in the notorious (Qantas owned) Trent 900 engine is the result of an internal engine oil leak at 1,000°C at high pressure, the endangerment of 440 passengers and 26 crew may have been preventible, given that there seems to have been fore-knowlege (by Rolls Royce) of a 1st generation manufacturing defect in a pipe coupling. As the 3rd generation versions of the engine no longer sport the same problem, the issue was recognized prior to the explosion, and dealt with.

The failure to communicate a potential problem to Qantas before the engine fire, and for that matter, to owners of all affected 1st and 2nd generation products (Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa), goes beyond a communications failure and inches toward negligence. And the practical concern now is that irregardless of whether the specific factor was a manufacturing defect or fatigue, how swift and responsible will Rolls Royce be in corrective action, aggressive inspection schedules and reconfiguring a maintenance paradigm that gets A380s back on track?

Time will tell. Also, only time will tell if this engine explosion will be contained within the auspices of Rolls Royce; Qantas, Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa. In fact, Rolls Royce is not alone in its sub-culture of secrecy and non-reportage and disclosure. Will the teetering public confidence in aviation safety will be irrevocably compromised in the days to come?


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Rolls Royce: Trent 900 statement and Interim management statement


Rolls-Royce has made progress in understanding the cause of the engine failure on the Trent 900 powered A380 Qantas flight QF32 on 4 November 2010. It is now clear this incident is specific to the Trent 900 engine.

As a result, a series of checks and inspections has been agreed with Airbus, with operators of the Trent 900 powered A380 and with the airworthiness authorities. These are being progressively completed which is allowing a resumption of operation of aircraft in full compliance with all safety standards. We are working in close cooperation with Airbus, our customers and the authorities, and as always safety remains our highest priority.

We can be certain that the separate Trent 1000 event which occurred in August 2010 on a test bed in Derby is unconnected. This incident happened during a development programme with an engine operating outside normal parameters. We understand the cause and a solution has been implemented.

The Trent 900 incident is the first of its kind to occur on a large civil Rolls-Royce engine since 1994. Since then Rolls-Royce has accumulated 142 million hours of flight on Trent and RB211 engines.

We will provide a further update with our interim management statement on 12 November 2010.

Interim management statement

Rolls-Royce Group plc, the global power systems company, is today issuing its Interim Management Statement for the period 1 July to 11 November 2010.

Trading across the Group’s businesses has progressed in line with the guidance for modest growth provided in July 2010, at which time the Board expected underlying profits to grow by between four and five per cent compared to 2009. As a result of the recent Trent 900 incident on 4 November, partially mitigated by better performance in the Marine and Defence businesses, the Board now expects underlying profit growth for the full year to be slightly lower than previously guided. The Board also expects a small cash inflow in 2010 with the average net cash balance remaining similar to that in the first half of the year which was £915m, both substantially the same as guided in July.

Sir John Rose, Chief Executive, said:

“Safety is the highest priority of Rolls-Royce. This has been demonstrated by the rapid and prudent action we have taken following the Trent 900 incident. We have instigated a programme of measures in collaboration with Airbus, our Trent 900 customers and the regulators. This will enable our customers progressively to bring the whole fleet back into service. We regret the disruption we have caused.

“This event and the consequent actions will have an impact on the Group’s financial performance this year. However the scale of our order book, the breadth and mix of our portfolio, the global nature of our business and our strong balance sheet makes Rolls-Royce a resilient business, and we expect continued underlying profit growth in 2010”.

The Group has made further good progress in the period with the non-civil aerospace businesses now expected to perform slightly better than guided in July.

There are signs of improving demand in our Marine business as we build our portfolio across the offshore, specialist vessel and naval markets.

The Energy business is expected to make good progress in 2010. We continue to explore options to grow our Energy and nuclear activities.

The global reach of our Defence business affords us access to the markets where demand for our products and services is increasing. The broad range of applications, customers and sectors that we support and the entry into service of new programmes will further underpin long-term growth. This will more than compensate for the modest, and anticipated, reduction in revenues from the UK Government which are a consequence of the recently announced Strategic Defence and Security Review.

The Civil aerospace business has proved resilient through a challenging economic period. Our market leading positions will progressively be extended as new applications, such as the B787, Gulfstream G650 and A350XWB enter service over the next few years. In 2010 the civil business has continued to make progress in line with our expectations. The bulk of the costs of the Trent 900 incident and the necessary mitigation will be expensed this year. Civil business profitability will therefore be lower than guided in July.

The Group will report its preliminary results for the 12 month period ending 31 December 2010 on 10 February 2011.

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