Rolls-Royce's A380 engines to be removed for oil fix
ABOUT half the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines powering Airbus A380s, including 14 Qantas engines, will need to be taken off and dismantled.
The process would fix components involved in a potentially dangerous oil leak.
The Australian has been told about 40 engines on the 20 A380s operated by Qantas, Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa need to be modified to fix the leaks. This includes 24 at Singapore Airlines and two at Lufthansa.
The modification, described by Rolls-Royce as the replacement of a module and understood to involve a bearing box, requires the engines to be taken off the wing and stripped down so engineers can access the affected area.
Industry players expect the work to strain both resources and parts availability and say the British manufacturer is looking at establishing stations around the world to do the work.
The modifications aim to prevent a repeat of an oil fire blamed for the disintegration of a turbine disc that saw a Qantas Trent 900 rip itself apart, peppering the wing of an A380 with shrapnel and causing substantial damage.
Rolls also plans to introduce a software fix that will shut down the engine before it reaches a point where the turbine disc is in danger of disintegrating.
The incident prompted Qantas to ground its A380 fleet and the airline was still unsure yesterday about when the superjumbos would resume flying.
It expects the A380s to be returned to service on a plane-by-plane basis and Airbus has offered to help by taking already modified engines from its production line and shipping them to Qantas.
A spokesman said Qantas would work with both Airbus and Rolls-Royce to work out "the fastest and most effective way of ensuring its engines were up to the latest variation".
Singapore, which has grounded three planes and has the oldest A380s as well as the biggest fleet of 11 aircraft, would not confirm the number of engines requiring modifications.
A Singapore spokesman said the airline was continuing to inspect the engines in accordance with a European airworthiness directive that allowed operations to continue safely.