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Aviation History
2002
2002 - 3368.PDF
AIR TRANSPORT PROPULSION PAUL LEWIS / WASHINGTON DC R-R Trent 800 comes under fire Emirates pushes Rolls-Royce to improve reliability and support of 777 engines as the airline considers alternatives Emirates has expressed growing frustration with the Rolls-Royce Trent 800 engine's reliability and support issues, and what the carrier regards as the slowness of the man ufacturer to respond. The recent complaints come at a difficult time for the engine company as it fights to maintain a position as the Middle East carrier's principal pow- erplant supplier in the face of strong competition from General Electric and Pratt & Whitney. According to industry sources, on a recent visit to Dubai, outgoing R-R chairman Sir Ralph Robins faced strong criticism from within the Emirates engineering commu nity over the recent performance of the Trent 800 engine on the car rier's fleet of 18 Boeing 777- 200/300s. Issues lie with the engine's high-pressure compressor first-stage rotor, and cracking in particular, say sources. During an earlier problem, Boeing had to ship a Trent 800 from its production floor as a replacement engine. R-R describes Robins' trip as sim ply a "normal courtesy visit", adding that the Trent continues to display a good level of of reliability, but the company is looking at ways to improve that. The Trent 800 in Emirates ser vice suffers from a below-average on-wing time, but a major con tributing factor is the airline's oper ating requirements and environ ment that has put the engine at a constant level of stress, says Emirates chief director Tim Clark: "Any derate is virtually non-exis tent - the engines are always work ing flat out at heavy take-off weights in high temperatures on long missions." He adds: "R-R has looked at all aspects of the engine - design, quality control and hardware - and we are confident that it has now Emirates works the Trent 800s powering its 777 fleet flat out in demanding conditions come up with a package that addresses the problems and will make the Trent 800 a robust, reliable engine." Industry sources caution that Emirates' complaints come in the middle of a major engine competi tion and the airline is using this as leverage to extract the maxi mum concessions. The airline plans to order at least 25 more 777s and is trying to decide between the -300 version for shorter-haul flights powered by either the General Electric GE90, Pratt & Whitney PW4098 or Trent 895, or opting for the increased gross weight -300ER long-range derivative powered exclusively by theGE90-115B. R-R is pushing the latest Trent 895C for the 777-300, which will have improved durability and take off thrust, while the airline is also interested in the possibility of retrofitting it to its existing aircraft. Emirates earlier this year dealt R-R a massive blow by opting for the GE/P&W Engine Alliance GP7200 for its large planned fleet of A380s. AIRCRAFT NOISE Airports call for legislation The UK's Airport Operators Association (AOA) is lobbying the government to implement drastic noise legislation backed by the Airports Council International Europe (ACI-E). Speaking at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London last week, Mike Hodgkinson, chief executive of major UK air port operator BAA, said: "Through the AOA, we are call ing for the phase-out of marginally compliant Chapter 3 aircraft by 2006, the complete phase-out of Chapter 3 aircraft by 2015, the introduction of a new Chapter 5 regime of at least 14db quieter than Chapter 3 by 2015, and by 2030 the introduc tion of a new Chapter 6 and the phase-out of Chapter 4 aircraft." SECURITY AARON KARP / SALT LAKE CITY USA admits it cannot meet 100% explosives screening deadline The US government is continuing to work rapidly towards screening all checked airline baggage for explosives by a Congressionally imposed 31 December deadline, but concedes that 100% screening is not possible by year-end. The US Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) plan to deploy thousands of explosive detection system (EDS) and explo sive trace detection (ETD) machines to more than 420 US air ports by 31 December has proved too ambitious. TSA acting head James Loy admitted to delegates last week at the Airports Council International - North America (ACI-NA) 2002 conference in Salt Lake City that 5-6% of US airports will not meet the deadline and will instead operate under "interim" explosives screening plans. "These temporary solutions may remain in place for months while we work towards a final solution," said Loy. While he declined to name airports, facilities not meet ing the deadline could include several of the USA's largest hubs. Airport directors attending the conference had feared the attempt to meet the deadline at large hubs would create debilitating conges tion, including passenger queues spilling out of terminals. At Miami Airport, for example, the TSA has said it intends to deploy 45 EDS machines along with 200 ETD devices by year-end. But the airport has only nine EDS machines and 45 ETD devices. Miami officials have complained that installation of the new equip ment requires terminal re-construc tion and will lead to chaos among passengers, so the airport appears to be a likely candidate for an interim solution. "Airports have been saying all along that the [100% screening] goal Congress set was a stretch and was intended to be a goad to the TSA to move as fast as possi ble," says ACI-NA president David Plavin. "The head of the TSA has enough good sense to know that long queues out of the door into the winter cold are not good for business." 8 19-25 NOVEMBER 2002 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.flightinternational.com
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