2 ms·
and not have an engine fail in a way that causes the wing to be pierced I think this is the bit that is more worrisome than any possible maintenance issues. J
by evgen 16y ago
and not have an engine fail in a way that causes the wing to be pierced
I think this is the bit that is more worrisome than any possible maintenance issues. Jet engines have lots of turbine blades spinning at hellacious rpms. The one catastrophic failure that modern engines are supposed to be designed to prevent is having the blades leave the cowling; this is the sort of failure mode that can result in the failure of a single engine taking an entire plane down (c.f. UAL 232). This is not supposed to happen on modern engines. Ever
- yellowbkpk 16y agoI don't think the larger fan blades did leave the cowling. Based on the couple images I saw of the failed engines (e.g. [0]), the smaller, hotter blades farther aft [1] were the ones that punctured the cowling. These have less protection because the wing protects the passengers from flying debris whereas the compression and intake fans stick out far enough to require separate cowling for passenger protection. [0] http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/img_up/QantasEngine250.jpg http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/img_up/QantasEngine250.jpg [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jet_engine.svg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jet_engine.svg