Trent 1000 service management update | Rolls-Royce

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Trent 1000 service management update

Rolls-Royce continues its intense focus on resolving Trent 1000 issues our customers face and sincerely regrets the disruption caused by the need for additional checks and maintenance on these engines.

Recent action taken includes the start of certification testing of the redesigned rotor blade for Trent 1000 Package C engines, with redesigns for other Trent 1000 engines following closely behind. These tests mark an important step towards returning these engines to the levels of service our customers rightly expect.

From trebling our maintenance capacity in a matter of months to accelerating the development of the redesigned parts, Rolls-Royce teams from across the world have come together to respond to this issue and we will continue to work relentlessly for our customers in the coming months.

Chris Cholerton, Rolls-Royce, President – Civil Aerospace, said: “We are working closely with our customers to minimise any operational impact of these inspections and we deeply appreciate their continued co-operation. We remain absolutely committed to eliminating this issue from the Trent 1000 fleet.”

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Q&A

What has happened?

In coordination with Boeing, airworthiness authorities and our customers we are implementing additional precautionary inspections, service management actions and flight operation guidance for Trent 1000 Package B and Package C engines.

How many engines are affected?

The additional inspections and service management actions apply to 166 Trent 1000 Package B and 386 Trent 1000 Package C engines.

Why are you now inspecting Trent 1000 Package B engines too?

While there have been no in-service IPC durability events on Package B engines that have affected flights in its six years of service, we have however considered whether durability issues affecting Package C engines could also affect other Trent 1000 variants. A similar Intermediate Compressor durability issue has also been identified on a small number of high life Package B engines and we have therefore agreed with Boeing and the relevant regulatory authorities to introduce a similar inspection regime as for the Package C. The Package B standard has been in service since 2012 and consists of 166 engines.

What does high cycle mean?

A cycle may broadly be described as one take-off and one landing. Engines with high cycles, while not necessarily older by date, can be considered to be more mature and therefore more relatively likely to see durability issues.

How many Trent 1000 engines are there in total?

There are over 600 Trent 1000 engines in service across Package B, Package C and Trent 1000 TEN standards.

Is the engine safe to fly?

Travelling by aircraft is the safest form of travel and safety will always be our first priority. All of these service management actions have been fully supported by Boeing and the airworthiness authorities. They are precautionary measures that we are taking to ensure the engines continue to remain safe to operate.

How many aircraft are affected?

It’s difficult to give a clear indication of how many aircraft might be affected. For example, engines can be moved around across airplanes. It will depend on the specific operations of the airline and the specific age and condition on their engines.

Which airlines are affected?

We are unable to comment on specific airlines or their operations. They will make their own arrangements and announcements as appropriate.

How many aircraft will be left on the ground as a result of these inspections?

It depends whether an individual inspection shows that a part requires replacement, how quickly that part can be replaced and whether a spare engine is available.

How long will this disruption last for?

We are developing plans with each airline but we expect there to be a period of increased inspection activity followed by more frequent inspections across the rest of 2018. We recognise that this will result in additional disruption for airlines which we sincerely regret.

Ultimately, we must eliminate this problem altogether and we are already redesigning specific parts of the compressor and early parts are already in manufacture. For Package C we are aiming to have first parts available this year and the Package B redesigned part, will follow closely behind the fix for Package C and is expected to be delivered in 2019.

What financial impact will this have?

Please see the latest guidance on the financial impact of resolving these issues

Are you responding to an in-service event?

No. What we’re doing here is looking at the parts to ensure there aren’t any issues. This is a form of proactive maintenance to catch any issues before they become issues that would affect airline operation and cause them to report problems.

What does the compressor do?

The Intermediate Pressure Compressor is a set of spinning discs with small blades which squeezes the air drawn in by the fan at the front of the engine, preparing it for further squeezing in the high pressure compressor and eventually being mixed with fuel and ignited in the combustor. There are 8 rotor stages within the Intermediate Pressure Compressor, each of which features a number of blades. The blades are manufactured from a titanium alloy.

How do you do inspections?

The required inspections take a few hours to complete and can be completed without the engine being removed from the aircraft. It involves placing a probe within the engine and can usually be done between flights.

If an issue is found and a part needs replacing, how quickly can you do that?

Each inspection takes a number of hours to complete, but if an issue is identified with a part, the engine would need to be removed and taken to one of our facilities. The time each engine spends in overhaul depends on the improvements we need to incorporate into that engine. We are using all techniques available to us to accelerate engine overhaul and have been investing in increased capacity to support the increased requirement for inspections.

Will this also affect the latest version of this engine, the Trent 1000 TEN?

To date we have not seen any examples of durability issues with the Trent 1000 TEN engine, which is a younger fleet, but we are taking precautionary action to design and introduce a new standard of blade to this engine type. We expect this part to be available in 2019. It will also be built in to Trent 7000 engines.