Singapore Airlines grounds two Boeing 787-10s
Singapore Airlines has been forced to ground two of their new Boeing 787-10 Dreamliners in light of early deterioration of internal components found in the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 TEN engines powering the aircraft.
In a statement to media, Singapore Airlines confirms inspections identified blade cracking in the high pressure turbine (HPT) section of the engines.
The aircraft grounded are 9V-SCB and 9V-SCF, both of which are around one year old. As a precautionary measure launched by the airline and Rolls-Royce, inspections of the remaining seven Boeing 787-10 Dreamliners in their fleet as well as a Scoot 787-9 will be conducted.
Rolls-Royce and Boeing figures outline the delivery of only a single Trent 1000 TEN 787-10 to another airline, being All Nippon Airways, who has already been hit hard by past Trent 1000 issues.
To overcome the engine issues that have disabled Boeing 787 fleets around the world, Rolls-Royce has been busy redesigning turbine blades to be deployed to engine fleets to restore 787 operations. The Trent 1000 TEN was not only meant to be a performance upgrade for the Trent 1000, but also to be a fix for Trent 1000 package C and B engines.
Although preliminary shipments have already been sent out to airlines, Rolls-Royce notes in-depth testing is still underway, with a final fix set to be rolled out very shortly for both Trent 1000 and Trent 1000 TEN engines.
Flight Global outlines 295 Boeing 787 Dreamliners are using Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines, of which, 70 are using the upgraded Trent 1000 TEN.
The General Electric GEnx 787-10 is already in service with some airlines around the world, specifically Etihad and United, however these engines have also had to undergo repairs/bug fixes.
Again, citing Flight Global, Boeing earlier requested the Federal Aviation Administration provide an exemption on a safety regulation to allow the GEnx powered 787-10 enter service, however was declined.
Quoting the Flight Global article:
“The GEnx-1B engine has a software bug that in one instance prompted the computer to shut down the engine during a step climb to a higher altitude in ice crystal icing conditions.”
A software fix for this issue is/already has been released, allowing GEnx 787-10s to fly with airlines, however the problem regarding engine shutdowns in icing conditions trails back further to early 787 operations.
Investigations will continue on both sides to determine the complete details of the design faults/operational capabilities.
Rolls-Royce released a statement on their Trent 1000 around this time last year: