The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has limited the ETOPS capability of Rolls-Royce powered Boeing 787 Dreamliners.
An airworthiness directive, which will be published today, will say that the fleet of 787-8 and 787-9 aircraft that are powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 Package C engines will be limited to 140min ETOPS.
The move comes as a result of a design flaw with the blades in the intermediate compressor stage. Despite Rolls-Royce working to redesign the Stage 2 blades, the flaw has been found to be more dangerous than initially thought.
The Trent 1000 Package C engine was originally authroised for 330mins ETOPS.
According to the Airworthiness Directive, all affected 787’s must operate under the new ETOPS rules within 3 days of the issuing of the directive. The FAA said that the directive was issued as in the event of an engine shutdown in flight, the high thrust setting on the remaining engine is likely to exacerbate the design flaw.
The FAA said, “If the remaining engine already had cracked IPC stage 2 blades, the likelihood of the remaining engine failing will further increase before a diversion can be safely completed”.
What is ETOPS?
ETOPS or Extended Twin-Engine Operations dictates how far from a diversionary airport an aircraft can fly. 140 minute ETOPS says that an aircrtaft must be with 140 mins straight line flight time from a suitable diversion airport at all times during the flight. In the context of transatlantic flights its the difference between going straight across the atlantic or further North to stay within range of Iceland and Greenland. Soemthing that can add hours onto a flight from the UK to Florida or the Caribbean.
Nick is the senior reporter and editor at UK Aviation News as well as working freelance elsewhere. He has his finger firmly on the pulse on Aviation, not only in the UK but worldwide. Nick has been asked to speak in a professional capacity on LBC, Heart and other broadcast networks.
Boeing 747-400 TF-AAK landed at Cotswold Airport this morning for its final landing after a short flight from Ostend. The aircraft was owned by Air Atlanta Icelandic and had been operating for Saudia until its sale to be parted out. The aircraft is best known around the world as the [read more]
As trade week comes to an end and the displays turn to public eyes we look at back the highs and the lows, the winners and the losers of the Farnborough International Airshow 2018. The week began with Qatar Airways stealing the show sending no less than 6 aircraft. The [read more]
Seattle based air-framer Boeing is on track to open it’s new Sheffield facility in 2018, Boeings first dedicated manufacturing facility in Europe. Boeing Sheffield will manufacture spur gears, shafts and housings with materials that are also sourced in the UK. The result of a £20m investment, the facility will support global [read more]
We use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. We do this to improve browsing experience and to show (non-) personalised ads. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
