After detecting premature High Pressure Turbine (HPT) blade deterioration on Trent 1000 TEN engines, Rolls-Royce announces reaching an agreement with EASA for accelerated inspection regime.
Rolls-Royce explains that the premature deterioration of HTP blade was detected in a sample of Trent 1000 TEN engines that have experienced a higher frequency of flights at the upper end of their operating range, and the problem affects only a “small number” of engines, according to announcement on April 10, 2019.
Rolls-Royce have already been developing, and are currently testing, an enhanced version of the HPT blade. The manufacturer expects to start incorporating enhanced blades into the Trent 1000 TEN fleet in early 2020.
“This blade deterioration is a known issue but it is occurring faster than we expected in some engines,” said Chris Cholerton, Rolls-Royce, President – Civil Aerospace. “We started development of an enhanced blade last year, which we are now testing. We expect to start incorporating enhanced blades into the Trent 1000 TEN fleet in early 2020.”
Due to this HPT problem, Singapore Airlines (SIA1) (SINGY) grounded two of its nine Dreamliners earlier in April 2019.
Korean airline Air Premia picket Trent 1000 TEN to power their 10 Boeing 787 Dreamliners, Rolls-Royce announced on April 11, 2019.
Trent 1000 TEN is one of two engine available for Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the other one being General Electric GEnx.
On the main photo: Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engine