ANA specific corrosion problem found in 787 Rolls Royce engines

ANA canceled 9 flights on Friday, and faces more than 300 cancellations through the end of September due to a corrosion problem found in their 787 Rolls Royce engines. The problem was found in a flight from Kuala Lumpur, where the aircraft reported a high EGT reading. They returned to the airport and found corrosion in the medium pressure turbine. Since then the problem has been found in several other engines.

The problem appears to be specific to ANA, which uses the aircraft on short haul flights. The engines face higher than usual temperature stresses during takeoff and climb, with shorter times at cruising altitude. The engine is designed for flights up to 10 hours, and the short flights ANA uses them for face higher than normal incidences of sulfidation corrosion. The problem is not in the turbine itself, and doesn't appear to present a safety of flight issue, beyond the possibility of having to shut an engine down.

ANA Holdings Inc. is canceling flights as the world’s biggest operator of Boeing Co.’s 787 Dreamliner checks for corrosion in the jet’s Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc engines.
The Japanese airline canceled nine flights scheduled for its 50-jet Dreamliner fleet for Friday and may scrub more than 300 trips through the end of September as it deals with cracking in the medium-pressure turbines of the Trent 1000 engines, Takeo Kikuchi, a deputy senior vice president of engineering and maintenance, told reporters Thursday in Tokyo.
The disruption is the largest 787-related miscue for ANA since 2013, when Boeing and regulators grounded the global Dreamliner fleet after lithium-ion batteries caught fire on two jets. About 38 percent of the 787s in service are powered by the Trent 1000, while the rest are outfitted with General Electric Co. engines.
The latest problem came to the fore as ANA investigated why a 787 engine overheated during a February flight. That jet returned to Kuala Lumpur airport after receiving a warning that the temperature of the exhaust gas from its right engine had spiked. ANA has encountered corrosion in turbines since then, most recently on Aug. 20.

www.bloomberg.com...

Why would they be using 787s for short haul? It cant make economical sense can it?

a reply to: Pyle

They use them on domestic and shorter routes due to the lower operating costs and higher seat counts over other aircraft. It also gives the crews an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the aircraft before flying the longer international routes they operate on. They also get the opportunity to break the aircraft in where if there's a problem they can fix it easier, and cheaper.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Fair enough, I always assumed that the 787s only really made money on long haul.

a reply to: Pyle

They're best suited for long haul flights, but they make at least a little money on shorter flights compared to other aircraft.

They actually looked at an all economy A380 to transport domestic Japanese flights, like a massive bus. Idea was scrapped, but yeah, they operate a little different.

a reply to: cosmania

With the passenger counts they run some years, they have to really. But they're smart enough to make it work for them.

a reply to: cosmania
Yeah because it was a terrible idea.

Flogging 380's with high cycle short sectors would be a recipe for broken aircraft. Not to mention bankruptcy, regardless of which engine you use. A 777SR would be a far better idea as they just keep on rolling along, not much breaks on them. A 777 is also quite a bit cheaper last time I looked and with the "X" models coming will be even more economical. Failing that you could always revisit the 747SR in -8 Intercontinental form. However Boeing's MoM concept is what this kind of market segment is really being targeted by.

Ooops another one.Maybe not a Roller though..
737 loses engine

a reply to: Blackfinger

All 737s use the CFM56.

Isn't Japan a unique situation where they are limited in the number of aircraft the infrastructure can handle, so they use larger aircraft?

a reply to: C0bzz

On some routes. They have quite a few 737NGs and smaller Airbus, but some of their routes need larger aircraft.

Oh oh, that's not good for Rolls or ANA. ANA replacing all the Rolls engines on their 787's:

www.theguardian.com...

a reply to: Sammamishman

Looks like they're sticking with Rolls though, from the wording of articles.