Guy Norris: Oil fire suspected in Trent 1000 failure

Guy Norris posted an article saying that the uncontained failure of the Trent 1000 engine on a Rolls Royce engines test stand last month was due to a oil fire that weakened the shaft of the IPT and which subsequently failed.

If this is confirmed then it may mean that there is a problem with the Trent 1000 that would have to be addressed by Rolls Royce and perhaps Roll may have to re-certify parts of the engine, it is too early to tell what impact this may have.

Guy Norris: Oil Fire Suspected In Trent 1000 Failure

The latest delay has provided fodder for critics of the 787 and Boeing with many saying that Rolls Royce is being used as a scapegoat for the latest problems that Boeing has encountered. However, if there was an oil fire in the Trent then Boeing cannot possibly take the hit for the latest delay especially since they did not design and manufactured the engine.

Right now both Boeing and Rolls Royce are fairly silent on the status of the engine and what really happened on August 2nd but Boeing is still flying the 787 in test flights and is poised to fly the last test flight 787, ZA006, on September 18th. Boeing still has to get about 1,500 flight hours under the 787s belt in order to certify the airplane. They need to fly about 320 hours a month for the next 5 months in order to meet their certification and delivery target dates.