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Old 8th November 2025 | 23:17
  #362 (permalink)  
Lost_in_the_regs
 
Joined: Aug 2022
Posts: 6
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From: auckland
Originally Posted by helispotter
Not sure, but the Australian MRH-90 version had an early engine issue which is reported on Wikipedia as follows: "On 20 April 2010, a MRH-90 suffered a single engine failure near Adelaide, landing safely at RAAF Base Edinburgh, with NHIndustries personnel investigating the cause. On 18 May, the ADF announced that the MRH-90 fleet was grounded due to engine issues since the April incident. The cause of the failure was determined to be the compressor blade contacting the engine casing, leading to new preventative inspections; flights resumed in July 2010."

All the Australian MRH-90s used the (then) Rolls-Royce Turbomeca RTM322-01/9.

The New Zealand Defence Force NH90's are also fitted with RTM322 but those helicopters seem to be achieving satisfactory availability.

On the Wikipedia entry for the NH90, the only operator for which the General Electric (CT7-8F) engines are specifically mentioned is Spain.
The RNZAF models are budget models so have few software development issues, plus I understand that they found escalating up the management chain ensured more rapid resolution of supply problems as they (NHI) apparently had a culture of not wanting to be the barer of bad news so problems weren't feed up the management chain. The Ozzie NH90's also because they had their own production line in Oz, so suffered a complete new learning curve (apparently a common problem with all Oz assembled airframes).
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