Airliner external combustion engine

[femurphy77]

With the cowl gone the fire suppression is essentially useless.

Standby for the lawsuits!

 

[d.kaufman]

 

[AtTheMurph]

United Airlines is going to be paying out a lot of money. Then they will go after P&W.

UA's insurance company is going to be paying out.

 

[AtTheMurph]

View attachment 126935

I've seen this. Was flying somewhere from Indy. Looking out window at wing and I can see a fairly large hole (probably 18 inch in diameter.) through which I can see the ground.

I'm thinking that probably isn't how a wing looks so call the attendant over. She looks and makes a weird face.

Goes up to cabin. Pilot comes back and looks, makes a weird face and both leave.

Then we get the message over PA that we are delayed for some maintenance. The maintenance was some grubby guy with a big piece of tape. Slaps it on the wing covering the hole and pilot says we're good to go!

What could go wrong? Tape is sticky at 500 mph as it is at 0 mph.

 

[Hatin Since 87]

View attachment 126935

Lol that’s actually pretty accurate. Good friend is a pilot, called one day and said they had to emergency land, they hit a bird with the engine. He sent a pic and the blades in the engine were bent and jagged. I asked what they did to fix them, said the guy straightened them and filed the edges back
smooth

 

[SnoopLoggyDog]

View attachment 126935

Commonly known "Speed Tape".

 

[SnoopLoggyDog]

Lol that’s actually pretty accurate. Good friend is a pilot, called one day and said they had to emergency land, they hit a bird with the engine. He sent a pic and the blades in the engine were bent and jagged. I asked what they did to fix them, said the guy straightened them and filed the edges back
smooth

We would get bird stikes on A-10s that would damage the leading edge of the fan blades. We would borescope the compressor, to make sure there was no damage to the core. Then we would pull the damaged fan blades and blend out the damage with swiss files. If we had to replace fan blades, they would be swapped out in pairs, 180 degrees out. They were matched up by weight. If we had to replace more than two pair, we had to do a vibe run to check for excessive vibration. The blades were made of titanium so they were super light yet very strong.

 

[BugI02]

Lol that’s actually pretty accurate. Good friend is a pilot, called one day and said they had to emergency land, they hit a bird with the engine. He sent a pic and the blades in the engine were bent and jagged. I asked what they did to fix them, said the guy straightened them and filed the edges back
smooth

"That will buff out" is all purpose black humor among MX

 

[Jaybird1980]

Commonly known "Speed Tape".

Works on Race Cars too.

 

[tbhausen]

On race cars we’ve always called it “200 mph tape”, so “500 mph tape” must be something different and even better

 

[tbhausen]

Good thing this cat must’ve been taking a break when it happened:

 

[SnoopLoggyDog]

On race cars we’ve always called it “200 mph tape”, so “500 mph tape” must be something different and even better

To be honest, "speed tape" and "muffler bandage" always looked like the same product. Just a bigger roll.

 

[KittySlayer]

Scary but reassuring. I am totally impressed that the plane was still flying and the pilots were able to return and safely land the plane. Glad no one in the air or on the ground was injured.

 

[HoughMade]

Those were some calm, skilled professionals.

 

[Doug28450]

 

[BugI02]

It's possible a fan blade failure started this, but those are much more likely to take the cold path and not compromise the core. It is just my opinion, but I would bet the root cause of this will turn out to be a compressor stall (or a series of them) at high power. Think of a massive backfire in the engine, analogous to what happens in a supercharger explosion in a drag racer. Most uncontained failures would shred the fan and the core and there would be more shrapnel damage, this looks more like it just blew the panels off. The inlet cowling came down essentially in one piece

 

[avboiler11]

"Just a chipped toof..."

It wasn't a great week for P&W 4000s...between the Yonited Triple and the Longtail Aviation 744 uncontained failure in the Netherlands.

The PW4056 purrs like a kitten on LeBus, tho...

 

[SnoopLoggyDog]

It's possible a fan blade failure started this, but those are much more likely to take the cold path and not compromise the core. It is just my opinion, but I would bet the root cause of this will turn out to be a compressor stall (or a series of them) at high power. Think of a massive backfire in the engine, analogous to what happens in a supercharger explosion in a drag racer. Most uncontained failures would shred the fan and the core and there would be more shrapnel damage, this looks more like it just blew the panels off. The inlet cowling came down essentially in one piece

I've seen a couple compressor stalls on the trim pad and test cell. Each time, we usually borescoped the engine and fixed the cause of the stall, (fuel control, compressor inlet temp sensor, guide vane actuator). Only once did I see a compressor get damaged. There was no other damage to the aircraft.

The picture above shows the aftermath of one fan blade breaking off at mid chord and another at the root. The blades did not penetrate the containment ring. But the instant unbalance caused the entire front frame to flex and cause the seperation of the inlet ring, outer nacelle panels and cowling. Aerodynamic loading greatly enhances the shedding of these structural components. Massive vibration would cause further damage.

 

[BugI02]

I've seen a couple compressor stalls on the trim pad and test cell. Each time, we usually borescoped the engine and fixed the cause of the stall, (fuel control, compressor inlet temp sensor, guide vane actuator). Only once did I see a compressor get damaged. There was no other damage to the aircraft.

The picture above shows the aftermath of one fan blade breaking off at mid chord and another at the root. The blades did not penetrate the containment ring. But the instant unbalance caused the entire front frame to flex and cause the seperation of the inlet ring, outer nacelle panels and cowling. Aerodynamic loading greatly enhances the shedding of these structural components. Massive vibration would cause further damage.

Upon further review, I believe you are likely correct. I had not ever seen fan failure without a great deal more shrapnel damage, but my experience was with much lower bypass ratio engines

NDI Process Failures Preceded B777 PW4077 Engine FBO - Aerossurance

Weaknesses in procedures, training and facilities at a P&W Non Destructive Inspection shop struggling with a backlog of novel Thermal Acoustic Imaging inspections of PW4000 fan blades.

aerossurance.com

---

UPDATE: 20 February 2021 Occurrence (United Airlines B777-222 N772UA Flight UA328)​

United Airlines flight UA328, B777-222, N772UA experienced a no. 2 engine failure about four minutes after departure from Denver bound for Honolulu. Video appears to confirm an FBO event. The fan containment ring however does not appear to have been breached, as far as can be seen, so this would NOT be an uncontained engine failure in accordance with the official definition. The engine inlet cowl and fan cowls separated, most likely due to the fan out of balance vibration and came down in a residential area of Broomfield, CO. UPDATE 22 February 2021: The NTSB has issued its first statement on the Denver accident:

The initial examination of the airplane indicated most of the damage was confined to the number 2 engine; the airplane sustained minor damage. The examination and documentation of the airplane is ongoing.

The NTSB note that the inlet and cowling separated from the nacelle and that initial examination of the Pratt & Whitney PW4077 engine revealed:

• Two fan blades were fractured
  • One fan blade was fractured near the root
  • An adjacent fan blade was fractured about mid-span
  • A portion of one blade was imbedded [sic] in the containment ring
  • The remainder of the fan blades exhibited damage to the tips and leading edges

This is consistent with a single fan blade failing near the root and being released, followed by a second, trailing, blade failing on impact with the departed blade. This initial statement appears to confirm the debris was axially contained in contrast to some early speculation. The first major regulatory development was that the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB) issued a directive restricting operation of the Pw4000 powered B777 in Japanese airspace:

 

[femurphy77]

Flying to Honolulu from Denver it's an ETOPS plane; Extended Operations. Something they came up with when big twin engine commercial jets started appearing. Certified to fly further than one hour from an acceptable diversion airport either remote land or over water on one engine.

We used to say "Engine Turn Or Passengers Scream/Swim whichever was most appropriate.