A400M "A bit like Mrs Jones' Christmas Cake"

[4mastacker]

The Helpful Stacker said:

Or you could say it gives the spanner monkey a 50/50 chance of ordering the right one.

.....but a 100% chance of fitting it!!

JFZ90.. Thanks for that link. However, it doesn't make clear whether or not the engines are interchangeable. As Topbunker says, is it a cunning propellor gearbox function or have Airbus designed the ultimate Murphy?

[JFZ90]

JFZ90.. Thanks for that link. However, it doesn't make clear whether or not the engines are interchangeable. As Topbunker says, is it a cunning propellor gearbox function or have Airbus designed the ultimate Murphy?

I don't know, but I'd be surprised if it wasn't a gearbox thing - otherwise all the turbine blades / discs / bliscs etc would have to be handed - sounds expensive when a simple gearbox solution seems relatively straightforward.

[JFZ90]

From here

EPI Europrop International

It says...

Engine Architecture:
Offset Propeller Gear Box compliant with two senses of rotation for the
propeller

Hence looks like a gearbox thing - engines are all the same.

[VinRouge]

Unless I am being dull here, cant imagine them doing a gearbox change downroute though unless it has been specifically designed to do that in a hurry?

[4mastacker]

Vin Rouge, that web-site also declares:

Engine replacement within 4 hours

I seem to remember similar extravagant claims in the publicity blurbs prior to the introduction of a certain swing-wing aircraft, along with the assertion that us stackers would always have sufficient spares available on the shelf so the jet would never be AOG for more than one hour. Yeh, right!!

[Krystal n chips]

Engine replacement within 4 hrs

Being a cynical engineer, with some experience on props.....one would like to say just two words here........prove it !.....and not in some sanitised hangar with all the available G/equipment....and...ahem, with the aircraft / engines carefully prepared in advance......4 hrs ??.....erm, "just a shade optimistic" I would suggest....but it sounds good in marketing speak I suppose.

Does that 4 hrs also include the ground runs afterwards....or has the total time to do an engine change been quietly forgotten ?