Engine Troubles Plague Planemakers

With the engines of the major aircraft, call them kings of the skies, suffering from major technical glitches resulting in grounding of aircraft, the outlook is now a lot cloudier than it was at the beginning of the year for aircraft engine manufacturers

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Grounded aircraft and bleeding cash. That is the present situation faced by three aircraft engine manufacturing giants, the creators of engines powering the latest generation of fuel-efficient Airbus and Boeing aircraft.

The recent discovery that 400 to 500 of the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines were affected by problems with blades wearing out earlier than expected has brought in challenging times for the aircraft engine manufacturing giant. Also known as “Package C”, the engines are fitted to Boeing 787 planes and used by airlines including Air New Zealand, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Japan's ANA.

The Pratt & Whitney (P&W) Geared Turbofan (GTF) engines for the A320neo have had a troubled start to operations. In the first two years after their introduction, the engines were affected by flaws related to the fan blade, an oil seal, and the combustion chamber lining. P&W, however, was able to resolve all of these issues. Now the aircraft engine manufacturer disclosed a new problem related to a ‘knife-edge seal’ on certain engines, which appears to have caused several in-flight engine shutdowns.

Such problems are major hurdles for aircraft framers especially at a time where production rates of the new jets are rising to unprecedented levels: up to 14 jets per month for the widebody 787s, and to 60 per month and higher for the narrowbody 737s and A320 aircraft, according to the companies.

Consider this: In 1996, Boeing and Airbus combined delivered around 400 new aircraft to customers. Last year, they delivered 1,481, and they are projected to top 1,700 this year amid surging demand in emerging markets.