Anticipating Bankruptcy and dissolution, Pan American was soft pedalling maintenance. UAL took possession of some very clapped out airframes. There was a memo after 232 pranged that claimed Pan Am had actually id'ed the fracture, but sent the engine back into service prior to UAL's next check. The memo disappeared.
This is a Rumours site, after all.
Has anybody else wondered why the end of the Stub pipe has such intricate architecture? It resembles the female end of a line coupling. The bell coving at the tip suggests to me a male end misjoined. Is this a Line couple or a suck tube. If the latter, why the ring/land, and shoulder wear, not to mention the coving wear at the entrance to the tube?
From the image it looks one heckuva lot more like in-service wear from incorrect connection, than a degraded inlet aperture of a simple line/scavenge.
bear
Last edited by bearfoil; 3rd Dec 2010 at 00:08.