So an aircraft engine broke....

[TVC]

[QUOTE 1236591"]
Engine failure isn't uncommon. That's what I said.
[/quote]

As was said, the failure in this case was not contained in the engine, the integrity of the wing was compromised and several large pieces hit the ground. This is not common, and is a big deal.

 

[661-Pete]

If anything, it's made me feel better about flying. An engine failed and they had time to fly around for an hour and a half dumping fuel before landing safely.

I shouldn't really be scaremongering, but if a piece of that disintegrating engine had punctured the fuselage, possibly causing rapid decompression, it would have been a very different story.

 

[ComedyPilot]

I shouldn't really be scaremongering, but if a piece of that disintegrating engine had punctured the fuselage, possibly causing rapid decompression, it would have been a very different story.

IIRC a cabin would not be fully pressurised until at least 10,000 feet?

This was a take-off failure/bird strike?

 

[vernon]

Bugger all failures when Lucas Aerospace supplied the fuel systems. Just shows you what American 'Value Engineering' does.

The automotive and motocycle community have a different perspective on Lucas:

• [*]Lucas is an acronym for Loose Unsoldered Connections and Splices.
  
  [*]The Prince's last words to his son: "don't go riding after dark"
  
  [*]The Lucas motto: "Get home before dark."
  
  [*]Lucas denies having invented darkness. But they still claim "sudden, unexpected darkness"
  
  [*]Lucas--inventor of the first intermittent wiper.
  
  [*]Lucas--inventor of the self-dimming headlamp.
  
  [*]The three-position Lucas switch--DIM, FLICKER and OFF.
  
  [*]The other three switch settings--SMOKE, SMOLDER and IGNITE.
  
  [*]Lucas dip-switch positions: HIGH and BLOW
  
  [*]The original anti-theft devices--Lucas Electric products.
  
  [*]"I've had a Lucas pacemaker for years and have never experienced any prob...
  
  [*]If Lucas made guns, wars would not start either.
  
  [*]Did you hear about the Lucas powered torpedo? It sank.
  
  [*]It's not true that Lucas, in 1947, tried to get Parliament to repeal Ohms Law. They withdrew their efforts when they met too much resistance.
  
  [*]To owner of a Land Rover: "How can you tell one switch from another at night, since they all look the same?" Owner: "It doesn't matter which one you use, nothing happens!"
  
  [*]During the 1970's, Lucas diversified its product line and began manufacturing vacuum cleaners. It was the only product Lucas ever offered which didn't suck.
  
  [*]Lucas Quality Control often advised the engineering department that their designs had problems with shorting out. Engineering always made the wires a little longer.
  
  [*]Why do the English drink warm beer? Lucas made their refrigerators, too.
  
  [*]Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, and Joseph Lucas invented the short circuit.
  
  [*]Lucas systems actually use AC current; it just has a random frequency.
  
  [*]How to make AIDS disappear? Give it a Lucas parts number.
  
  [*]Lucas won over Bosch to supply electrics for the new Volkswagens so cars from the Black Forest have electric systems made by the Prince of Darkness.

[size="+2"][/size][size="+2"][/size]

 

[Bromptonaut]

Potentially big thing.
In flight shutdowns are, while not common, fairly routine. Shut it down and either continue on three, return or divert. Back in the seventies it was reported that BA was having approximately one in flight shutdown a week on their early (American engined) 747s

The worry with this one is that large chunks of the internals have exited the engine's casing penetrating the wing and dislodging large chunks of the fairing etc. In this case the damage was non-critical but whizzing hot turbine bits breaching the pressure hull or a fuel tank are the stuff of nightmares.

 

[philipbh]

I shouldn't really be scaremongering, but if a piece of that disintegrating engine had punctured the fuselage, possibly causing rapid decompression, it would have been a very different story.

Hence containment being designed into the engine casing / cowl / cover - such that high speed fragments don't escape and hit the fuselage and other control surfaces OR are exhausted out the back away from the aircraft

 

[telesonic99]

I once wrote to Rolls Royce advising them that to avoid the catastrophic failures brought on by bird-strikes they should put a grill over the front of the engine. They wrote back saying that a grill would affect the engine's 'high-bypass-ratio' which just sounds like all the gobbledy-gooky answers they've sent back for my other inventions.

 

[Maz]

I once wrote to Rolls Royce advising them that to avoid the catastrophic failures brought on by bird-strikes they should put a grill over the front of the engine. They wrote back saying that a grill would affect the engine's 'high-bypass-ratio' which just sounds like all the gobbledy-gooky answers they've sent back for my other inventions.

The bypass ratio is the amount of air that passes through the engine without being compressed, mixed with fuel and burnt, i.e. it bypasses the compression process and goes straight out the other end. Sticking a grill on the front I reckon would affect air flow/bypass ratio.

 

[TheDoctor]

I cringe to imagine what sort of grill you'd need to stop a heron at 500 mph.
Or was the idea to cook the heron? Be an improvement on most in-flight meals, I suppose.

 

[Browser]

No, you put an 'egg-crate' grille on al-la Lotus Sevens, but make the leading edge razor sharp (rather like one of those chip cutters you used to be able to buy) so that the bird doesn't get stopped, just 'reduced in size' a little
I wouldn't rate this as a catastrophic failure, the after part of the engine visible on the new pictures still looked intact.
No, it shouldn;thave happened but it did, the flight crew reacted as trained and landed the aircraft safely.
I'm just glad the news reports finally started naming the engine manufacturer as initial reports just named Airbus and Qantas. The airline have to follow manufacturers maintenance procedures, something which in the past has caused air accidents when not done (American Airlines DC10 crash), and I presume Airbus will have worked with Rolls Royce during the development of the aircraft, but the onus is on RR to find out what happened and, depending upon what they find, prevetn a re-occurrence.
As said somewhere else, if it was a birdstrike it must have been a pelican or something similar sized!

 

[dellzeqq]

No, you put an 'egg-crate' grille on al-la Lotus Sevens, but make the leading edge razor sharp (rather like one of those chip cutters you used to be able to buy) so that the bird doesn't get stopped, just 'reduced in size' a little

thus reviving that horror dish of the 60s - fricassee!

 

[philipbh]

Here is a link to Reuters, pictures of the incident

http://pictures.reut...1T20AUW&T=A&H=1

Here is a pic of the wing damage

http://twitpic.com/33spxm/full

Not ideal under any circumstances!

 

[telesonic99]

..

 

[telesonic99]

Those pictures remind me of that Twilight Zone episode.

Y'know the one where an inventor's suggestion for a chicken-wired grille over the engines is scoffed at by engineers who happen to suffer a bird-strike while flying to a conference in Geneva, while eating an in-flight chicken fricassee.

 

[Black Sheep]

Ask your friend to tell you the story about the frozen chickens...

Also ask your friend if the fuel system comes from Goodrich Corp. ( They've a Joint Venture )

Bugger all failures when Lucas Aerospace supplied the fuel systems. Just shows you what American 'Value Engineering' does.

Lucas managed to make something actually work?

The automotive and motocycle community have a different perspective on Lucas:

• [*]Lucas is an acronym for Loose Unsoldered Connections and Splices.
  
  [*]The Prince's last words to his son: "don't go riding after dark"
  
  [*]The Lucas motto: "Get home before dark."
  
  [*]Lucas denies having invented darkness. But they still claim "sudden, unexpected darkness"
  
  [*]Lucas--inventor of the first intermittent wiper.
  
  [*]Lucas--inventor of the self-dimming headlamp.
  
  [*]The three-position Lucas switch--DIM, FLICKER and OFF.
  
  [*]The other three switch settings--SMOKE, SMOLDER and IGNITE.
  
  [*]Lucas dip-switch positions: HIGH and BLOW
  
  [*]The original anti-theft devices--Lucas Electric products.
  
  [*]"I've had a Lucas pacemaker for years and have never experienced any prob...
  
  [*]If Lucas made guns, wars would not start either.
  
  [*]Did you hear about the Lucas powered torpedo? It sank.
  
  [*]It's not true that Lucas, in 1947, tried to get Parliament to repeal Ohms Law. They withdrew their efforts when they met too much resistance.
  
  [*]To owner of a Land Rover: "How can you tell one switch from another at night, since they all look the same?" Owner: "It doesn't matter which one you use, nothing happens!"
  
  [*]During the 1970's, Lucas diversified its product line and began manufacturing vacuum cleaners. It was the only product Lucas ever offered which didn't suck.
  
  [*]Lucas Quality Control often advised the engineering department that their designs had problems with shorting out. Engineering always made the wires a little longer.
  
  [*]Why do the English drink warm beer? Lucas made their refrigerators, too.
  
  [*]Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, and Joseph Lucas invented the short circuit.
  
  [*]Lucas systems actually use AC current; it just has a random frequency.
  
  [*]How to make AIDS disappear? Give it a Lucas parts number.
  
  
• Lucas won over Bosch to supply electrics for the new Volkswagens so cars from the Black Forest have electric systems made by the Prince of Darkness.

[size="+2"] [/size][size="+2"] [/size]

Nice

I'm just glad the news reports finally started naming the engine manufacturer as initial reports just named Airbus and Qantas. The airline have to follow manufacturers maintenance procedures, something which in the past has caused air accidents when not done (American Airlines DC10 crash)

There are a lot of people who do not speak well of DC planes, saying various things about their build quality.