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December 2010 Archives

Why Qantas had to bring Rolls to court

By
Will Horton
 on December 14, 2010 3:10 PM | | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)
Joyce under A380.JPG
What Qantas wants to avoid is being back in the spotlight with its A380, but upwards of a half billion dollars is at stake. Photo: Will Horton

Reading the details from Qantas' affidavit and claim against Rolls-Royce, the manufacturer of its Trent 900 engine that experienced an uncontained failure on 4 November, you cannot help but think Qantas would not want these details to get out.

The court documents thoroughly describe a flaw in the 72,000 lb variant that would require the engines to be replaced after 75 maximum thrust take-offs. Fixing the problem is not going to be easy, and thus casts doubt on when Qantas can resume normal operations, especially to Los Angeles.

Qantas would not want these details to get out, but it had no choice. Qantas said in its affidavit it held a

Serious concern that, if given notice of this application and Qantas's intention to commence these proceedings, Rolls-Royce would apply forthwith to the English courts for an anti-injunction suit and that, if granted, there is a high degree of likelihood that Qantas would not only be restrained from pursuing these proceedings but that it would also be shut out from having an Australian court determine whether or not it should entertain a significant claim brought under an Australian statue by an Australian company with regard to conduct which relevantly occurred in Australia.
Merrill Lynch estimates the A380 grounding could cost Qantas A$207 million. That's nearly twice the carrier's $112m annual result for the year to 30 June.

And every day four of the A380s remain on the ground and the two flying aircraft face flight restrictions, that figure goes up.

The trade off to saving literally millions of dollars by being able to sue Rolls if the two cannot reach a settlement is having to reveal enough details--perhaps not commercially sensitive (those are redacted) but certainly insalubrious--to make a case in court. That trade off has been made.

"Our legal move is designed to protect our position into the future," a Qantas spokesman says. "Having any claim heard in Australia in relation to the Trade Practices Act is, we believe, an appropriate approach. Otherwise we remain in active discussions with RR."

For the short- and medium-term we have gained knowledge from this case. But we have yet to see the long-term effect: the relationship going forward between Rolls-Royce and its airline customers.

For Qantas to think Rolls would attempt to block Qantas' legal action for a problem that is very damningly Rolls-Royce's fault is one of the first signs of permanent damage. The fall out from that--could Rolls face a competitor for supplying the A350 with engines?--is yet to be seen.

It was this video that got Air NZ into trouble?

By
Will Horton
 on December 14, 2010 2:20 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Air NZ Crazy About Rugby safety video.jpg
In this edition of quirky news, ever since Air New Zealand had its employees, including chief executive Rob Fyfe, strip for videos, some people had been claiming Air NZ had gone too far. With each new video and characters introduced--notably a fluffy and sleazy mammal with a penchant for wearing purple vests--came more protests.

And now Air NZ has conceded.

So was it the nudity? Rico hitting on passengers? Rico playing matchmaker? Rico's insalubrious language?

None.

It was a kiss. Or rather, the lack thereof.

In Air NZ's "Crazy about Rugby" safety video flight attendant Will Coxhead asks All Blacks centre Richard Kahui for a kiss on the cheek (see screenshot above) and the player turns him down, waving no and shaking his head.

Air NZ says an unidentified university professor "had raised concerns the homosexual rejection could lead to gay male suicides", the AFP reports.

Air NZ will remove the scene from videos. At present the offending scene remains in the video below from the carrier's YouTube page.

For now, long live Rico.

Fixing Rolls-Royce's disposable A380 engines

By
Will Horton
 on December 14, 2010 1:26 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Trent 900 side view.JPGA Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine seen on Qantas A380 VH-OQC at Sydney on 6 November. Photo: Will Horton

Building the world's largest passenger aircraft and the engines to power it was no easy feat. But now, fixing the beleaguered Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines that power A380s from Qantas, amongst other carriers, will be a new challenge.

Qantas operates the Trent 972 engine, which delivers a maximum thrust of 72,000 lb. The only other current two Trent 900 operators, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines, operate the Trent 970 with a maximum 70,000 lb of thrust.

That extra 2,000 lb on each engine is needed to get the A380 off LAX's relatively short runways in a headwind with a full load for a 14 hour flight in light of Airbus adding structural weight to the A380 in 2007. Prior to that time Qantas planned to use the 70,000 lb Trent 900 variant.

However, the extra thrust exposes the engine to 540 psi at P30, which causes the engine to experience "high severity", the affidavit says. Rolls-Royce's interim suggestion to Qantas has to been to derate the engines in order to "reduce the engine pressure ratio in the 'P30' area of the engine and therefore increase the life of the oil transfer tubes within the HP/IP support structure", the affidavit says.

The oil transfer tubes are the suspected cause of an oil leak that started a fire and then the uncontained engine failure. The derated thrust, however, reduces payload and makes the LAX-Australia route unprofitable.

The Trent 900 has had three modification standards: A, B, and C. Qantas and Rolls have agreed the carrier should not operate at all the "A mod". The "B mod" and "C mod" can be used, even for maximum thrust--but only 75 times. After the 75th maximum thrust take-off, the engine needs to be replaced, Qantas' head of engineering and maintenance told lawyers preparing the affidavit.

Rolls in 2000 quoted Qantas a list price of US$12.85 million per Trent 900. If four engines were only to be used 75 times their cost would be $685,333 per flight, or on a full flight with 450 passengers, an extra $1522.96 per passenger. Mind you, fares across the Pacific can easily be had for two-thirds that price.

That is, simply, uneconomical. At some point it would be cheaper for Rolls to extend LAX's runways, including paying people to move out of houses and businesses in the way, than pay for new engines every 75 flights. (As part of the TotalCare agreement between Rolls and Qantas, Rolls looks after and repairs Qantas' engines.)

The likely repair will be to figure out a way to reduce the engine pressure ratio and/or strengthen oil pipes. But how? That's the $12.85 million dollar question.

Rolls-Royce puts the 80 in A380

By
Will Horton
 on December 13, 2010 12:25 PM | | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
QF A380 close up.JPGRolls-Royce's revised operating procedures mean Qantas can only carry 80 passengers on its A380s between Australia and America. Photo: Will Horton

Qantas this week expects to hear from Rolls-Royce on how it can fully restore its trans-Pacific A380 flights connecting Los Angeles with Melbourne and Sydney.

When Rolls-Royce, the manufacturer of the Trent 900 engine that experienced the 4 November uncontained failure on a Qantas A380, advised Qantas it could resume flights, the caveat was Qantas had to use a lower thrust setting than the maximum 72,000 lbs its Trent 972-84 variant permits. The only other current Trent 900 operators, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines, use the Trent 970-84 with a maximum of 70,000 lbs of thrust.

The thrust constraints meant an A380 departing Los Angeles could, depending on the runway in use, carry a payload of 20,000 or 30,000 kg. That corresponds to Qantas only being able to fly 80 passengers between America and Australia, an "uncommercial" proposition, the carrier says in Federal Court documents as part of the carrier's legal claim against Rolls-Royce.

The 20,000 or 30,000 kg payload is 22-34% of the A380's typical maximum payload of 89,200 kg. It should be noted that after taking the most restricted payload (20,000 kg) and accounting for a generous average of 120 kg per person including luggage and catering provisions, the A380 could carry 166 people, so it seems Qantas is including some freight in its calculations, but the constraints are still severe.

It's understood the likely concern of using the maximum 72,000 lb thrust setting is that there could be resonating vibrations that cause oil pipes to crack, thus leaking oil and setting the scene for a fire and uncontained engine failure. For the record, CASA says it has no concerns of the A380 operating across the Pacific with limited diversion points compared to mainly overland Kangaroo route to London.

What is not clear is if the resonating vibrations still fit with the current Trent 900 situation.

On 2 December the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said an axial misaligned stub pipe counter-boring, likely occurring during manufacturing, was the probable cause of the QF32 accident, a view upheld the next day in the ATSB's preliminary report. Stub pipe inspections found the problem replicated on three engines, including two not from Qantas and thus not exposed to the 72,000 lb thrust level. Count out here the resonating vibrations.

Qantas identified 16 Trent 900 engines that needed modification or replacement for a second fault, unrelated to the stub pipe issue: the bearing compartment module producing oil sediments in the high pressure/intermediate pressure chamber. This fault, which is keeping the engines grounded, was not mentioned in the ATSB's preliminary report, so details are still scant on the cause and if the resonating vibrations had an effect.

The big question hanging over the Trent 900 is if two older variants of the engine, "A mod" and "B mod", are at fault while the "C mod" operates normally.

Qantas says it only has "A mod" and "B mod" Trent 900s, so it remains to be seen if the solution to restoring trans-Pacific flights is to use "C mod" engines (which with a lack of spares is easier said than done) or if there is a more systemic problem with the Trent 900.

Airlines and others are blaming faulty "A mod" and "B mod" variants for both the stub pipe and the bearing compartment module. Meanwhile Rolls-Royce dithers.

Skytaders, operator of unusual aircraft, bestowed with unusual accidents

By
Will Horton
 on December 10, 2010 12:21 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Skytraders VH-VHB.jpg
Skytraders C-212 VH-VHB, one of two in the carrier's fleet, seen during better times. Photo: Skytraders

Sydney-based Skytraders operates some unique aircraft, including an Airbus A319LR with built-in stairs and two EADS CASA 212-400 aircraft equipped with skis (see above photo).

Unfortunately these unusual aircraft lend themselves to be operated in uncommon environments, producing some unusual--but thankfully non-fatal--accidents.

The most recent occurrence for Skytraders was when C-212 VH-VHB struck hard, rigid ice ("sastrugi" in polar parlance) when making a scheduled landing at Bunger Hills, 430km west of Casey station in Antarctica on 15 November. During the summer Antarctic seasons, Skytraders operates its two C-212s and single A319LR for the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD).

VHB's left landing gear was displaced and fuselage buckling occurred, stranding the two pilots and two engineers (there was shelter available). The second C-212, VH-VHA, dropped tools and supplies for the crew to clear remaining sastrugi from the landing area so VHA could land and then collect data and photos for assessment.

The AAD says it is creating a repair scheme in consultation with Skytraders, but could not provide details. Skytraders did not respond to calls seeking comment. (Note: I don't think Skytraders is being evasive. Employees said the relevant staff to comment were traveling during the week, and Skytraders has previously been open with operational incidents.)

Suffice to say, VHB will be out of service for some time, but to mitigate the loss the AAD has leased a Twin Otter from Canada.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau says it is not investigating the accident, explaining it has to concentrate its resources on cases that will most improve safety. That makes sense: there is limited flying in Antarctica and few C-212s in operation, plus the ATSB is busy the Qantas flight 32 incident.

In another incident for Skytraders, in May their A319LR taxied for 50-100 metres at the Cocos Islands with its built-in stairs  deployed. The problem was attributed to human error not properly closing the door and also a cockpit indicator saying the stairs were retracted when they were not.

Skytraders says its A319 is the only aircraft of its type operating in Australia with built-in stairs. Additionally the carrier says other operators have had similar faulty indicators with the stairs.

For anyone sleuthing, yes, the AAD has requested a tender for flights between Australia and Antarctica after the current tender, held by Skytraders, expires in 2012. The AAD says it wants "to achieve better value for money than its current arrangement by limiting the provision of the services to a Charter Period".

Trent 900 shortage finally hits A380 operators

By
Will Horton
 on December 9, 2010 9:40 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
VHOQCno3engine.JPGThe no. 3 engine on Qantas A380 VH-OQC was one engine that needed to be replaced. Here in Sydney on 6 November engineers prepare to demount it. Photo: Will Horton

Almost a month ago when Qantas first said it would have to change engines on its A380s in the wake of the 4 November uncontained failure, my colleagues and I began wondering how long it would take until there was a shortage of Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines, one of two powerplant options for the A380, and the sole supplier for A380s from Lufthansa, Qantas, and Singapore Airlines.

That time is now.

Qantas says it has two A380s that could return to service if there were enough unaffected ("clean" in QF32 parlance) Trent 900s.

The carrier managed to bring two of its six A380s back to service by pooling unaffected engines. That entailed demounting affected engines and replacing them with unaffected engines demounted from other aircraft--musical engines, if you will. Qantas will not say exactly how many engines it had to do this to in order to get those first two A380s in the air.

Now the carrier is battling geography. Its four other A380s are on four separate continents. The damaged aircraft remains in Singapore, one is undergoing a scheduled C check in Germany, and two aircraft that could return to service are in Los Angeles and Sydney.

With the A380 unable to "fifth pod" a spare engine, unlike the 747 for example, there is no way for the carrier to easily transport these huge engines that are 116 inches in diameter and weighing 14,190 pounds. A Rolls-Royce brochure boasts the engine is the only A380 powerplant that can fit in a 747-400F.

Qantas was not oblivious to this problem developing, and within 72 hours of the incident was already considering pooling engines.

After Lufthansa replaced one engine it came to our understanding the German carrier would "struggle to carry out another engine change".

Airbus has offered to demount engines from aircraft in production so the freed engines can be swapped onto aircraft already in service. Qantas has four aircraft in production and is considering Airbus's offer. Two of those aircraft are due for delivery this month and Airbus says under its offer it would demount engines on aircraft farthest off from being delivered, so it's unlikely these two aircraft will see their engines demounted.

A Qantas spokesman pithily said, "It's clear Rolls needs to be able to provide replacement engines."

How Rolls will balance in-service aircraft lacking engines and forthcoming aircraft that airlines want delivered on time will be one more challenge for the beleaguered manufacturer.

If Rolls stays on track with future deliveries it could upset engine-less Qantas even more. If Rolls tries to appease Qantas by changing the current A380 delivery schedule, other airlines could stand to be impacted. Perhaps Rolls-Royce's decision will boil down to if it thinks it has any future business left with Qantas.

Interview with pilot in the cockpit of QF32 on 4 November

By
Will Horton
 on December 8, 2010 11:02 PM | | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)
David Evans QF32.jpgPhoto: David Evans

The Royal Aeronautical Society has a fascinating interview with Qantas A380 Captain David Evans. He was in the cockpit as an observing check pilot during the QF32 uncontained Trent 900 engine failure on 4 November. Evans is seen on the right in the above photo taken after QF32 returned to Singapore.

It's a must read. Here are some excerpts:

We had a number of checklists to deal with and 43 ECAM messages in the first 60 seconds after the explosion and probably another ten after that. So it was nearly a two-hour process to go through those items and action each one (or not action them) depending on what the circumstances were.

The Engine 2 was shut down. Part of the damage caused Engines 1 & 4 to go into a 'degraded' mode. The engines were still operating and Engine 3 was the only engine that was operating normally.

With the loss of the green system we dealt with that and curiously we had the hydraulic pumps of Engine 4 indicating failed as well. Engine 3, the trusty engine, was the only engine that was producing hydraulics for the aircraft for the yellow system.

We had to work out whether we could actually stop on the runway that was available to us. We didn't have the ability to dump fuel, the fuel dumping system had failed and we were about 50 tonnes over our maximum landing weight...the computer happily made a calculation and it gave us a touchdown speed of about 165kt and showed us about  130m of surplus runway (it's a 4,000m runway) so basically said we could stop on the runway. We had also lost the use of our leading-edge slats which consequently with the overweight condition made our approach speed quite fast - 35kt more than normal.

We had the aircraft with no air conditioning and its about midday now in Singapore - so its getting very hot in the cabin. We've lost our satellite phone so the trusty mobile phones came out and called the company in Sydney to relay back to the company in Singapore, to dispatch some stairs and buses to the aircraft.

From Rolls-Royce, eleven words worth a million

By
Will Horton
 on December 8, 2010 2:18 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
No2engineinspectionA380.JPGEngineers conduct a borescope investigation of the no. 2 Trent 900 engine on Qantas A380 VH-OQC in Sydney on 6 November. Photo: Will Horton

Last Friday night Andrew Dudgeon naturally took to the stage precariously.

The chief executive of Rolls-Royce Australasia was to present the technical story of the year award at the National Aviation Press Club dinner in Sydney, and earlier that day the ATSB released its preliminary report into the uncontained engine failure on a Rolls-Royce Trent 900-powered Qantas A380.

Rolls-Royce had hitherto said little. Its press conference after the 4 November incident confirmed barley anything more than Rolls-Royce manufactured the Trent 900. The powerplant manufacturer even canceled a press conference at China's Zhuhai airshow.

As the audience applauded Dudgeon's short speech of support to airlines, I contemplated his last remark: "No aircraft will fly unless it is safe to do so."

That should be aviation's guiding principle.

But is that what Rolls-Royce has neglected?

The puzzling circumstance after the QF32 incident on 4 November is that Rolls-Royce appeared to know what the problem was, and where else it might re-occur.

As we reported for our news wire Air Transport Intelligence:
Lufthansa's decision to change an engine on its first Airbus A380, in response to the Qantas incident, has partly been driven by the fact that the powerplant was an early production example.

Sources familiar with the process state that one engine on the Lufthansa aircraft was from a "former production cycle", indicating that the other three powerplants had already undergone a change before being fitted.

On 10 November Singapore Airlines announced it would recall three of its A380s back to Singapore to change one engine on each aircraft. Although the aircraft were on two continents outside of Singapore's Changi base, Singapore knew exactly which engines it needed to change. But how?

What we learned since is that the problem--in short: fatigue cracking, thinning pipe wall--was limited to "A mod" and "B mod" versions of the Trent 900. "C mod" versions were not affected. Thus Rolls-Royce could identify which engines were at risk to experience a similar failure.

The implications, my colleagues have written, are:
This appears to indicate that Rolls-Royce may have identified the fault and fixed it on the latest engine variant. It is not clear, however, when the fix was implemented.
While the latest, "C mod", version of the Trent 900 would have been fixed, the earlier "A mod" and "B mod" versions were neglected. Qantas says at the time of the incident Rolls-Royce had repaired only one of the 24 Trent 900s on Qantas A380s. (Qantas contracted Rolls-Royce's TotalCare maintenance program to look after and repair its A380 engines, so the carrier is not to blame.)

Did Rolls-Royce underestimate the potential severity of the fault? It may have been acute ignorance, but you have to hope that was the circumstance and not a determination far worse: negligence, which is what Qantas alleges.

Update, Thursday morning: We've heard from Rolls-Royce. They dither on what modifications occurred and if the "C mod" Trent 900 was affected (read more here), but their statements conflict with those from airlines.

What Rolls-Royce knew and did may never be known. Not even Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce was clear on Trent 900 modifications made prior to 4 November.

Joyce said last month: "It doesn't look like it's a significant modification, but it is a modification that has an impact on how the engines are performing. And it is a modification that indicates whether you are going to have a problem or not with the engine."

To paraphrase Dudgeon, Rolls-Royce will not permit an aircraft to fly with the potential, generic problem Joyce references.

But Joyce had a problem on a Trent 900 and ended up with a grounded A380 fleet that still cannot cross the Pacific due to thrust restrictions.

If Rolls-Royce is only now playing public-relations catch-up by declaring no unsafe jet will fly on its watch, Rolls-Royce's customers are seeing right through it. As Joyce said of the Trent 900 modification, "If this was significant and was known to be significant, we would have liked to have known about that...We and Airbus weren't aware of it."

Air NZ to receive 777-300 for Christmas

By
Will Horton
 on December 7, 2010 9:09 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
ZK-OKM
Air New Zealand 777-300ER. Photo: Flickr user kpaekilo1

If all goes according to plan, Air New Zealand will receive this Christmas a gift about as big as they come: a Boeing 777-300ER. Not only is it the first of an order for five, it is also the first aircraft to have the carrier's new long-haul interior, including the much-touted economy lie-flat product called the SkyCouch.

The aircraft is due to touch down in Auckland on the morning of Christmas Eve, with Boeing handing the bird over sometime--the schedule is still being finalised--around 21 December. (Some are clamoring for the delivery day to be called "World Spooning Day". See here for the joke.)

It's a welcome gift, but Air New Zealand was originally expecting the first delivery last month, which slipped to late November/early December. But such goes aircraft deliveries these days.

Air New Zealand has not stated the cause of the delay, saying only it is due to the aircraft being new. In September Air New Zealand said it had to make changes to its SkyCouch product, including tightening the PTV and arm rests so they did not move as freely (a hazard in a crash), but it's not clear how related those modifications are to the delay.

Nonetheless Air New Zealand has shown prudence and has scheduled the official start of its 777-300ER operations for 1 April 2011 when 777-300ERs will commence services on the Auckland-Los Angeles-London route. Between delivery and 1 April the aircraft will operate ad-hoc services across the Tasman to Australia as well as to LA.

"If customers end up on a B777-300ER then they will be surprised and delighted about getting to experience the new product," the carrier has said. For reference, the new SkyCouch may not be the only thing passengers will be surprised about.

Photo: 767-300 freighter to wear Qantas livery

By
Will Horton
 on December 5, 2010 11:51 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
In February when Express Freighters Australia, the wholly-owned freighter management company for Qantas, deploys a 767-300F for Qantas Freight, the aircraft will be the first freighter to wear a Qantas livery (sans kangaroo on the tail).

Qantas Freight 763 in Qantas livery.jpg
The 767-300F will be deployed on the Trans-Tasman route to New Zealand, Qantas says. The -aircraft will replace a 767-200F and offer an approximately 17,000 kg increased payload, or 40%. For ULD stats and cubic metre goodness, here is some more info of the -300F from Qantas:
767-300F Qantas statsd.jpg
Qantas Freight Executive Manager Stephen Cleary says in a statement the carrier is introducing the new aircraft type to the route "in response to continued strong market demand".

"The Tasman is one of Qantas Freight's most important markets and this investment reinforces the commitment we made when we established the freighter operation in 2009," Cleary says.

Express Freighters Australia, which has it owns Air Operators Certificate, operates four 737-300 freighters but in the livery of Australian air Express, a joint venture between Qantas Freight and Australia Post. Qantas Freight's three wet-leased 747-400 freighters wear the livery of their lessor, Atlas Air.

Qantas says it is finally painting a freighter in a Qantas livery "in recognition of the significant long-term commitment the Qantas Group is making to its freight operations". No word yet if the carrier will paint other aircraft in its livery.

Update: A spokeswoman explains the lack of kangaroo on the tail as: "The aircraft has a unique livery as it is a dedicated freighter aircraft - any future acquisitions or dry leased aircraft may also carry this dedicated freighter livery."

 "At this stage there are no plans to paint any of our current wet leased aircraft in a Qantas livery."

The B767-300F aircraft, MSN 33510, is a production line freighter manufactured in January 2006 and previously operated by All Nippon Airways. EFA will lease the aircraft on a  long term lease directly from Japan's SOJITZ Corporation, the spokeswoman says.
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