Qantas resumed flying two of its six A380s on November 26, after replacing some of their Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines. In total, Rolls must bear the cost of replacing some 40 Trent 900s from the 20-strong fleet of Rolls-powered, four-engine A380s.
Air Transport and Cargo » Air Transport and Cargo Engines
News and issues relating to air transport and cargo engines.
November 12, 2010 - 8:43am
Rolls-Royce today confirmed that an oil fire led to the November 4 uncontained failure of a Trent 900 on a Qantas A380 on its way from Sydney to Singapore. In a statement issued this morning, the engine company said that the failure involved "a specific component" in the turbine area of the engine and led to the release of the intermediate pressure turbine disc.
November 9, 2010 - 6:20am
Rolls-Royce says that the uncontained engine failure on a Qantas Airbus A380 en route from Singapore to Sydney on November 4 “is specific to the Trent 900.”
October 7, 2010 - 9:50am
More evidence of an increasingly robust single-aisle commercial airplane market surfaced today in Boeing’s third-quarter delivery report, which shows that 737 deliveries accelerated from 181 during the first two quarters to a total of 281 by September 30.
October 5, 2010 - 7:37am
Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC) joined Canadian and Quebec government officials in inaugurating the company’s global flight test operations center yesterday at Montreal-Mirabel International Airport.
October 5, 2010 - 4:40am
A new General Electric turboprop engine, derived from the 7,500-shp GE38-1B turboshaft engine, could become available by the middle of the decade. GE has designated the new engine study CPX38, and is basing it on the turboshaft that will power the U.S. Marine Corps’ new heavy-lift helicopter, the Sikorsky CH-53K. This could mean that the CPX38 would be in the 5,000- to 6,000-shp range.
October 1, 2010 - 7:54am
Rolls-Royce in late August filed a complaint alleging infringement by United Technologies (UTC) of the patent for the Rolls-Royce swept fan blade–the same design, claims Rolls, that UTC subsidiary Pratt & Whitney used in its PW1000G PurePower geared turbofan for the Bombardier C Series and Mitsubishi MRJ.
September 27, 2010 - 8:15am
Pratt & Whitney today filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court in Connecticut against Rolls-Royce, claiming that UK-based engine maker misled the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office to obtain a patent related to swept fan blades.
September 10, 2010 - 7:46am
Boeing moved quickly this month to erase any doubts about the progress of the 787 flight-test program after “an assessment of the availability of an engine needed for the final phases of flight test this fall” led it to conclude that it couldn’t deliver the first production airplane until the middle of next year’s first quarter. Last week, all five flight-test airplanes remained active, said Boeing.
September 10, 2010 - 7:35am
Pratt & Whitney and CFM might not like to hear it, but if the assertions of Boeing CFO James Bell prove accurate, the 15- to 16-percent fuel efficiency gains the engine makers have repeatedly advertised for their respective next-generation turbofans will translate into less than double digits if and when they make their way onto existing narrowbodies.
