News out today from Rolls-Royce reports: “In April this year Rolls-Royce provided an update on the management of a durability issue affecting the Intermediate Pressure Compressor in a population of Trent 1000 engines, known as Package C engines. An update on the company’s operational response to this issue was provided on May 30.
Since identifying this issue, we have undertaken a wide range of engineering analysis and engine tests to further our understanding of the cause. While this work has focused on Package C, we have also considered whether the same durability issue may occur on other Trent 1000 engine variants.
A similar Intermediate Pressure Compressor durability issue has now been identified on a small number of high life Package B engines and we have therefore agreed with the relevant regulatory authorities, with concurrence from Boeing, to carry out a one-off inspection of our Trent 1000 Package B fleet, to further inform our understanding. The Package B standard has been in service since 2012 and consists of 166 engines.
These inspections will be supported by an EASA Airworthiness Directive which will be published in the coming days, and as a result we anticipate there will be a limited impact on customer operations to enable this programme of one-off inspections to take place. Engines will be inspected on-wing using existing techniques.
We are committed to eliminating this Intermediate Pressure Compressor durability issue from the Trent 1000 fleet and we have already successfully run a redesigned Package C IPC in a development engine. As a precautionary measure we have also launched a redesign of the relevant part in the Package B engine as well as in the Trent 1000 TEN engine, where, although currently a young fleet, we have not seen any examples of reduced IPC durability.”
As of 1Q18, there were 257 787s with Rolls-Royce Trent engines in service. The table below lists these engines, which model 787 they are on and who the operator is.
The fixes needed are on a wide variety of airlines. The Trent compressor is the issue that needs fixing. Reuters reports “The existing package C issue had led to about 30 of the affected aircraft being grounded at any one time for checks. They were flown by airlines including British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, and Air New Zealand.”
