New defence $4 billion chopper fleet fails
* By Ian McPhedran
* From: The Daily Telegraph
* May 18, 2010 10:56PM
A NEW $4 billion fleet of European-built helicopters destined for the army and navy has been grounded after a serious mechanical failure.
One of the first 11 of the MRH-90 Eurocopters experienced engine failure on a training flight 30 minutes northeast of Adelaide on April 20.
Despite 40 of the machines entering service with the army and six with the navy, the Defence Department kept the decision to ground the aircraft secret for 28 days - to avoid the sort of embarrassment caused by the cancellation of a $1 billion navy helicopter contract.
Because no one was hurt and the twin-engined machine flew safely back to its base at Edinburgh, near Adelaide, on its other engine, the incident was not rated as "serious".
However, the engine problem is so significant that the fleet has been grounded indefinitely and Defence has been forced to own up.
"It is a serious issue that is now affecting the project," a Defence source said last night.
Eurocopter's Australian arm Australian Aerospace is also bidding to provide an extra 24 of the machines for the navy under a $2 billion project.
It is understood the engine, built by Rolls Royce Turbomeca, suffered a catastrophic failure in its compressor.
Engineers have arrived in Adelaide from Europe to try to pinpoint the cause of the failure.
"We don't know what has caused it but we want to get it back in the air quickly. However, we won't resume flying until there is a true understanding of the cause," a source said.
Defence helicopter experts are investigating whether any other NH-90 machines flying in Europe, or British Apache attack helicopters that use the same engine, have suffered any similar failures.
New defence $4 billion chopper fleet fails