Airbus, Boeing Eager to Forget Post-Halloween Nightmares
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By Jason Paur
- November 30, 2010 |
- 11:00 am |
- Categories: Air Travel
Today marks the end of a month Airbus and Boeing would like to forget. Both companies endured in-flight emergencies with their latest airliners that required grounding the aircraft.
The trouble started for Airbus on Nov. 4 when an A380 experienced an uncontained engine failure shortly after takeoff in Singapore. The plan had to return to the airport for an emergency landing. Pieces of the engine penetrated a cowling designed to contain them in the event of just such a failure, and the shrapnel pierced sections of the wing and fuselage.
Less than a week later on Nov. 9, a Boeing 787 experienced a brief fire during a test flight to Texas. Flight testing has been on hold since the incident and delivery of the first Dreamliner is expected to be delayed yet again.
All in all, not a good month for either company.
Qantas, the airline operating the A380 that experienced the engine failure, finally returned its largest aircraft to service last weekend. The incident is thought to have occurred after the failure of an oil line in one of the airplane’s four Rolls Royce engines. The leak led to a fire and subsequent failure of a turbine fan leading to the explosion of the engine. Both the wing spar and fuel lines were damaged as pieces of the engine pierced the left wing.
A thorough explanation of the damage, including pictures of the resulting holes in the wings can be found here. Damage to the wing was extensive and repairs are expected to cost around $70 million. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is expected to release an initial report later this week.
After grounding its A380 fleet, Qantas performed thorough inspections of its six A380s with Rolls Royce and replaced 16 Trent 900 engines.
Boeing’s 787 fire is now thought to have been caused by a small piece of “foreign debris” in the electrical panel where the fire started. Boeing has dismissed Initial reports that a tool had been left behind, but the company has not yet identified the “foreign debris” or said how it found its way into the electrical panel.
The fire occurred as the airplane was landing in Laredo, Texas, and lasted approximately 30 seconds. The insulation blankets ignited by the fire self-extinguished once electrical power at the source of the fire had been shut down. Some electrical power was lost during the incident and back up systems were used to land the airplane.
Boeing is expected to resume a revised flight test program in the near future, but analysts are already expecting a six month delay for the first customer aircraft. That would mean launch customer All Nippon Airways would receive its first Dreamliner sometime next fall. Roughly 30 Dreamliners are nearly finished at the factory north of Seattle and the company has yet to determine if the fire will require a design change.
Photo: Simon_sees / Flickr. Video: Channel 4 News (Australia)