Page 5 - AAA MAY - JUNE 2018 Online Magazine
P. 5

WAITING TO UNFOLD



                                                    The Farnborough Airshow will provide an insight into the
                                                        status of important commercial aircraft programmes

















                                                                                              Geoffrey Thomas




               arnborough 2018 will play out against   one of its top trouble shooters to help Rolls Royce work through
               a  backdrop  of unprecedented  and    the problems. These complex engine snafus go further than
               fascinating dynamics that could give   just the 787 and are impacting Airbus sales efforts for the A350
       Fhints of how the next decade in com-         suggests Richard Aboulafia of Teal Group. “It’s a big issue for
        mercial aviation is going to shape up. All the   Boeing [787] and for Airbus [A350],” said Aboulafia. He sug-
        major engine makers have problems to solve,   gests that airline confidence in Rolls Royce has been dented and
        there is a slight softening of the commercial   this could hurt sales prospects for the A350 with airlines such
        order market with possible order deferments,   as Australia’s Qantas, which is evaluating the A350-900ULR
        new partnerships between airframe manufac-   against the 777X for its Project Sunrise.
        turers being consummated while long-term
        widebody strategies are being crystalized.

        Propulsion Problems
        In  the  months  and  weeks  leading  up  to
        Farnborough, Rolls Royce was grappling with
        twin issues with its Trent 1000 with Package
        C on the Boeing 787, which has left many air-
        craft grounded and the British engine maker
        with a black eye. Late in May, Rolls Royce said
        it was expecting an increase in the number of
        787s grounded with insiders suggesting 50
        787s would be without engines.  “We fully rec-
        ognize the unacceptable levels of disruption
        our customers are facing,” Chris Cholerton,
        the company’s president of civil aerospace,
        said in the statement to Reuters.            While Rolls is in the hot seat for the moment, Pratt and Whitney
          “While we expect the number of aircraft    is only now solving its GTF engine issues for the A320neo family.
        affected to rise in the short term as the dead-  According to New York based analysts Bernstein in the first
        line for the completion of initial inspections   quarter A320neo deliveries were weak overall, with 30 aircraft
        approaches, we are confident that we have    delivered all with the CFM LEAP engine, due to the need for Pratt
        the right building blocks in place to tackle the   & Whitney to address a seal issue on the GTF engines that had
        additional workload.” But the problems go    halted deliveries.  Bernstein details the problems thus; FADEC
        well beyond the grounding with many oper-    error messages, extended cooling times, fan blade quality and
        ators impacted by revised ETOPS conditions   production rate issues, carbon seal in the third stage bearing,
        and  MTOW  restrictions.  The  issues  have   and hot spots forming on the combustor liner.  However, the
        prompted Boeing to move Keith Leverkuhn      analysts say that its expectation is that P&W will get all done

        ASIAN AIRLINES & AEROSPACE                                                                 May/June 2018 | 5
   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10