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Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 issues widen
June 15th 2018
There is no end in sight to the Trent 1000 durability issues besieging Rolls-Royce and keeping affected B787s on the ground. Read More » Following the detection of cracks found in Trent 1000 Package C intermediate pressure compressor rotors, the engine maker this week said it had found similar cracks in a “small number” of high life cycle Package B power plants.
“We have therefore agreed with the relevant regulatory authorities, with concurrence from Boeing, to carry out a one-off inspection of our Trent 1000 Package B fleet, to further inform our understanding,” Rolls said on Monday.
The Package B standard has been in service since 2012 and there are 166 engines in active operation in this category.
In late May, Rolls said it was accelerating the process of inspections and the development of a permanent fix for the issues, i.e. developing and certifying a revised compressor blade.
The UK-headquartered OEM has installed an enhanced compressor in a test engine. If successful, the manufacturer hoped to have the first parts available for overhauls by year end rather than 2019.
Scores of carriers have had to source extra capacity to compensate for the B787s undergoing mandated engine checks and possible replacement ahead of previously scheduled MRO checks.
Air New Zealand and Norwegian have leased HiFly aircraft, Scoot commissioned a Singapore Airlines B777, Virgin Atlantic took on ex-airberlin A330s and British Airways is using Qatar Airways A330s as a number of its B787s stay grounded. THAI and other airlines are seeking compensation from Rolls-Royce for the downtime.
“We have already successfully run a redesigned Package C IPC in a development engine. As a precautionary measure we have launched a redesign of the relevant part in the Package B engine and the Trent 1000 TEN engine, where, although currently a young fleet, we have not seen any examples of reduced IPC durability,” said Rolls-Royce civil aerospace president, Chris Cholerton.
The OEM CEO said Rolls was working with customers to minimise any operational impact of these inspections. “We remain absolutely committed to eliminating this issue from the Trent 1000 fleet,” he said.
On Thursday, Rolls-Royce chief executive, Warren East, announced 4,600 jobs would be cut from the company’s payroll in the biggest transformation in the Derby-headquartered group’s history. The 10% staff reduction would mainly hit management and support staff with two-thirds of the job cull focused on Derby. East said the restructuring aimed to reduce costs by US$565.41 million a year.
“We have world class technology but we are just not a world class business to go alongside it,” East said. "Over the last couple of years we had to get the business stable. We had to invest in extra and more modern manufacturing facilities and we had to prove we could scale up and deliver to customers."
“This is the fundamental reason why we did not embark on anything this radical three years ago.”
