QANTAS grounds it's A380's

[theladf]

After an in-flight shutdown QANTAS has grounded all 6 of its Airbus A380's

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11691197

I could have an interesting shift at work later today!!!!!!!

 

[Cake or Death]

not good for rolls royce. Although i would rather have a rolls royce engine on my cab than some peice of septic metal!

 

[Talk Wrench]

Blade off perhaps?

At least the A380 has shown it's survivability of this kind of situation rather than "lab" survivability.

Good skills by the crew!!

TW



.

 

[Combet Sheep]

Uncontained engine failure.

Photo's show damage to the wing, could have been a lot worse.

http://www.flightglobal.com/article...peripheral-damage-to-qantas-a380-unclear.html

 

[theladf]

I doubt a blade off, there have been (very occasionally) problems on Trent 800 where nacelle failure has led to engine damage and shut down. Speculating, this looks more like a hot air leak of some sort, althought there are blow out doors I have often wondered how effective they would be if a large mass of high pressure hot air suddenly impinged directly upon the composite structure of the nacelle.

 

[Shugster]

It'll do a trip. DT_Xtremez_30:

 

[theladf]

Having seen the Flight International pictures, it does now look like an uncontained failure.

 

[propersplitbrainme]

The descriptions of the incident seem to point to a turbine element letting go.

Not quite as spectacular as the failure of an HP turbine wheel on an American Airlines 767, shown in the sequence of photos in the link below, a couple of years back, albeit that one happened on the ground....

Turbine wheel hoped off

Note that the turbine failed on the No1 engine on the port wing, but a segment of turbine rotor ended up sticking through the outboard side of the cowling of the No2 engine on, of course, the opposite wing!

 

[metimmee]

They must have a good idea already for the other fleets fitted with the Trent to continue operations?

ouch!

 

[theladf]

They must have a good idea already for the other fleets fitted with the Trent to continue operations?

This is the only aircraft with the Trent 900 fitted, but I will book out an Iplex and get my passport ready for work!!!!!!DT_Xtremez_19:

 

[Talk Wrench]

Uncontained engine failure.

Photo's show damage to the wing, could have been a lot worse.

http://www.flightglobal.com/article...peripheral-damage-to-qantas-a380-unclear.html

Looking at those pictures, it looks as though the slat drive shaft was taken out. Slats in, flaps out is not a normal condition for landing. Also, the configuration of the landing gear doors suggests gravity extension which suggests loss of one hydraulic system.

This will have serious repercussions across design thresholds for engine burst.




TW

 

[Dirty Harry]

This will have serious repercussions across design thresholds for engine burst.

Trouble is TW, how far do you go? To gain certification the engine manufacturer must demonstrate that the fan case design can withstand a 'blade off' occurance at full power and successfully contain the failure. This scenario is deemed the greatest risk to the aircraft as the energy expended when the failure occurs could puncture the pressure hull with catastrophic consequences. There are currently no requirements to cater for uncontained failures anywhere else on the engine as the probability of them happening are almost zero when you factor in hours flown vs actual events. You could surround the entire core with a suitable material to completely eliminate the risk but this would significantly increase the weight of the powerplant and is not practical. In addition, it would involve a complete redesign.

This is the only aircraft with the Trent 900 fitted, but I will book out an Iplex and get my passport ready for work!!!!!!

Yep, time to dust off the old Iplex. I can see an emergency AD on the horizon with a one time borescope inspection of the hot end and possible repeat inspections until the failure mode has been positively identified.

Judging by the pictures it would appear that there has been a failure of a turbine disc with resultant seperation from the shaft. The Trent 900 is already the subject of an AD with respect to premature IP shaft coupling wear which can lead to loss of turbine disc integrity.

 

[Stevienics]

Looking at those pictures, it looks as though the slat drive shaft was taken out. Slats in, flaps out is not a normal condition for landing.
TW

Slats out, flaps in is worse - according to most Trident 3 pilots........sure they didn't manually disarm the slats to prevent possible assymetric operations?

 

[Dirty Harry]

Slats out, flaps in is worse - according to most Trident 3 pilots........sure they didn't manually disarm the slats to prevent possible assymetric operations?

You cannot isolate the slats on a modern FBW airbus. The slats and flaps are controlled by two SFCC's (slat flap control computers) receiving electrical signals from a common lever on the centre pedestal. Config 1 (the first detent) will give you slats only so you can have a slats out, flaps in configuration. If the slat drive was severed by debris from the engine then the system will detect an assymetry the moment a flap selection is made and will apply the wingtip brakes to lock them in the retracted position.

 

[I Look Like Kevin Costner]

Trouble is TW, how far do you go? To gain certification the engine manufacturer must demonstrate that the fan case design can withstand a 'blade off' occurance at full power and successfully contain the failure. This scenario is deemed the greatest risk to the aircraft as the energy expended when the failure occurs could puncture the pressure hull with catastrophic consequences. There are currently no requirements to cater for uncontained failures anywhere else on the engine as the probability of them happening are almost zero when you factor in hours flown vs actual events. You could surround the entire core with a suitable material to completely eliminate the risk but this would significantly increase the weight of the powerplant and is not practical. In addition, it would involve a complete redesign.


Yep, time to dust off the old Iplex. I can see an emergency AD on the horizon with a one time borescope inspection of the hot end and possible repeat inspections until the failure mode has been positively identified.

Judging by the pictures it would appear that there has been a failure of a turbine disc with resultant seperation from the shaft. The Trent 900 is already the subject of an AD with respect to premature IP shaft coupling wear which can lead to loss of turbine disc integrity.

Yeah, a turbine disc failure is one of the likely events that cannot be really defined. Can you reinforce a hot section like the fan casing? Not really, the fan casing doesn't have the bleeds, cooling/fuel/ancillery entry/exit points of the core casing so reinforcing is continous around the circumfrence. Really only the C ducts could modified to increase containment IMHO, however again, that would be almost as radical as redesigning an engine.

The report will be interesting.