AF66: explosion of a GP7200 reactor on Airbus A380 over the Atlantic

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Re: AF66: explosion of a GP7200 engine on Airbus A380 over the Atlantic




by Christophe » 13/10/17, 19:20

Houla it start to stink for Airbus vla that the FAA gets involved (yet no American company has A380 ...). The GP7200 therefore equips 60% of the devices according to this article ...

https://www.lesechos.fr/industrie-servi ... 122100.php

American Civil Aviation orders inspection of Airbus A380 engines

An FAA directive, the first since the September 30 accident, requires companies to visually inspect the engines of 120 Airbus A380s.

Two weeks after the failure on one of the four engines of an Air France Airbus A380, the American Civil Aviation Authority, the FAA, issued this Friday a first directive ordering a "visual inspection" of all GP7200 engines in service on some 120 aircraft, or around 60% of the A380s in service. The remaining 40% fitted with Rolls-Royce engines are not affected.

Mandatory inspection

This mandatory inspection must be carried out by the airlines within 2 to 8 weeks, depending on the age of the engines. It will focus more specifically on the fan dawn, at the entrance to the reactor, which had literally disintegrated in flight on the Air France A380, on September 30, for a reason still unexplained. Entering service in May 2011, the engine in question had completed 3.257 cycles (landings and takeoffs), apparently without problems until then.

An intermediate measure

This directive, presented as an intermediate measure pending the first results of the technical investigation conducted by the French Bureau of Investigation and Analysis (BEA), should not result in long immobilization of the A380s, which could disrupt the programs of flight. At Air France, where 14 engines have already been inspected, the procedure takes no more than two hours. The FAA does not impose, at this stage, an in-depth examination requiring the disassembly of the engines, except naturally if faults or damage "outside tolerance limits" were to be discovered during this inspection.

No impact on the flight program

This is rather good news for Air France, whose ten A380s are all equipped with GP7200 engines from the Engine Alliance, the joint venture between General Electric and Pratt & Whitney. So far, the company, which already has to manage one less A380, has managed to maintain its entire flight program, even if some A380 services to Abidjan and Shanghai are likely to be made by other device models. It is also probably a relief for Emirates. The Dubai company has no less than 90 A380s equipped with GP7200 engines in its fleet. Any measure that would force it to suspend the operation of its very large aircraft would have disastrous consequences for it.

Pending the documents to be examined

For the time being, the American and European authorities do not seem to plan to go any further in the protective measures, before knowing more about the causes of this unprecedented break in the dawn of the fan. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), in charge of the certification and control of airplanes in Europe, leaves the hand to its American counterpart for the time being, at the origin of the primary certification of the American engines of the A380. As for the BEA, which officially recovered responsibility for the investigation only a week ago, it is still awaiting the engine debris spotted in Greenland, in the area above which the accident (because it is indeed an accident in the typology of civil aviation). The Danish authorities would wait until they had collected enough debris before sending everything to the BEA. But the snowfall in Greenland delayed the recovery of the parts.

Conveying more complicated than expected

In addition, the decision to dismantle the defective engine and send it to Cardiff, in the European center of excellence of the engine manufacturer GE, for it to be examined in depth, turns out to be more complicated than expected to implement. . According to a BEA spokesperson, the operation as well as the transportation of the device to France, could require "several weeks" of preparations. If it is likely that the aircraft will depart on three engines, with a fourth engine not started to balance the aircraft, the arrangements for this conveyance have not yet been decided. Contrary to the information published in recent days, it is in particular possible that the A380 does not return directly to France, but that it is directed towards an airport in the United States or Canada, in order to limit the duration of the flight.


Uh visual inspection is not systematic before each flight? I believe that this is the job of the cabin crew ...
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Re: AF66: explosion of a GP7200 engine on Airbus A380 over the Atlantic




by chatelot16 » 13/10/17, 22:33

visual inspection of the pilot who goes around the plane what is it? you shouldn't be under any illusion he can't see much ... he can only see a big visible damage!

engine control is more technical, to be done by technicians ... pilot control before the flight is more to verify that there has not been a rough sabotage after technician control

pilot control: a badly closed hood ... if a hood is badly closed we don't suspect a technician of having badly closed it rather we suspect that a saboteur opened it!
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Re: AF66: explosion of a GP7200 engine on Airbus A380 over the Atlantic




by Christophe » 14/10/17, 11:33

chatelot16 wrote:visual inspection of the pilot who goes around the plane what is it? you shouldn't be under any illusion he can't see much ... he can only see a big visible damage!


Yes, but that is what the FAA is asking for ... at first ...
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Re: AF66: explosion of a GP7200 engine on Airbus A380 over the Atlantic




by Did67 » 14/10/17, 13:38

Gaston wrote:
Compared to a 747 in cargo version, the A380cargo would have offered 60% more volume, but only (less) 30% more transportable mass.

That means A380 freighter would not have made any significant progress for carriers compared to existing aircraft and that they would not have been able to reach the occupancy rates necessary to make an operation profitable.



I still suppose a gain in terms of consumption per tonne.km, right?

But I think there may not be that many cargo lines filling an A380. Maybe better increase the frequency of new economical cargo (I think Airbus or Boeing do, derived from their flagship models? Especially the A330 F, I think). And to remain much more flexible ...
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Re: AF66: explosion of a GP7200 engine on Airbus A380 over the Atlantic




by Did67 » 14/10/17, 13:43

chatelot16 wrote:
pilot control: a badly closed hood ... if a hood is badly closed we don't suspect a technician of having badly closed it rather we suspect that a saboteur opened it!


It is not rather the impacts or tears of tires after having "picked up" a lost part (this does not often end in crash, as with Concorde)? I hope that for the hoods etc. they have indicator lights! We have that on every car today ...

Besides, is it systematic ??? I do not believe. Some companies do, others don't. I have never seen a Ryanair or Easyjet pilot go around his plane. They dock ... and leave.
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Re: AF66: explosion of a GP7200 engine on Airbus A380 over the Atlantic




by chatelot16 » 14/10/17, 13:56

ryan air planes stay on the ground for such a short time that it is not worth controlling them ... no one has had time to damage them
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Re: AF66: explosion of a GP7200 engine on Airbus A380 over the Atlantic




by chatelot16 » 14/10/17, 14:04

Did67 wrote:I still suppose a gain in terms of consumption per tonne.km, right?

But I think there may not be that many cargo lines filling an A380. Maybe better increase the frequency of new economical cargo (I think Airbus or Boeing do, derived from their flagship models? Especially the A330 F, I think). And to remain much more flexible ...


if the A380 has too large a volume it will consume more fuel than a cargo plane optimized for the right payload volume ratio

what good is a large volume just to increase aerodynamic drag if for the same payload a smaller volume is enough

there is also the choice of speed: for the passenger the speed has more value than for the transport of material ... a cargo plane can be optimized for a lower speed
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Re: AF66: explosion of a GP7200 engine on Airbus A380 over the Atlantic




by Christophe » 14/10/17, 15:46

Did67 wrote:But I think there may not be that many cargo lines filling an A380. Maybe better increase the frequency of new economical cargo (I think Airbus or Boeing do, derived from their flagship models? Especially the A330 F, I think). And to remain much more flexible ...


You should know that very often any passenger airliner also does postal freight in part: the filling of the hold and the payload are optimized as well as the economic profitability of the plane with a few hundred kg of freight...

On certain lines I think that it is far from being negligible economically in particular on low cost: 80 kg of "air" freight certainly brings in much more than the 15 or 25 € paid by the passenger ...
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Re: AF66: explosion of a GP7200 engine on Airbus A380 over the Atlantic




by sen-no-sen » 14/10/17, 18:56

Christophe wrote:On certain lines I think that it is far from being negligible economically in particular on low cost: 80 kg of "air" freight certainly brings in much more than the 15 or 25 € paid by the passenger ...


In a perspective of monopolization, many carriers sell tickets at a loss * only with the objective of saturating the market, hence dreamlike prices (it is sometimes cheaper to make a Paris / Tunis by plane than a Paris Lyon by TGV!) which promote energy savings and the destructive tourist boom.


* It is the same case with the "Macron cars".
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Re: AF66: explosion of a GP7200 engine on Airbus A380 over the Atlantic




by Christophe » 14/10/17, 19:07

It has become difficult to compare prices with the SNCF ...

In my opinion, the SNCF has not been a public service for years ... their prices have become exorbitant if we do not benefit from a reduction ... and despite this the SNCF is not profitable (well, it must be linked when led by people who have never worked in the private sector and who have no notion of profitability and a sense of marketing ... : Mrgreen: )

We must pay the very heavy social liabilities of this juggernaut where employees believe, very selfishly, that strictly everything is due to them ... including golden pensions at 55 ...

And then these are the same people who yell at social injustice ... it makes me laugh ... they do an internship in the private sector : Mrgreen: : Mrgreen: : Mrgreen:
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