3 ms·
To your knowledge, has one of these nuts ever actually failed? That thing looks substantial.
by dclowd9901 3y ago
To your knowledge, has one of these nuts ever actually failed? That thing looks substantial.
- gavinhoward 3y agoNot to my knowledge, at least in the US. All aircraft in the US have a manufacturer-decided, and FAA-approved max amount of time between overhauls, and such overhauls are so thorough as to make the aircraft new again. (Sometimes, they even change enough things that the aircraft has to go through airworthiness tests again.) These overhauls would definitely replace the Jesus nut if there's any hint of problems.
- kens 3y agoHere's an article from 1975 claiming that the Jesus nut came off the main rotor of an OH-6, causing two fatalities: https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_MAC_Flyer/jBXi6uK1PFsC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=jesus+nut&pg=PA19&printsec=frontcover https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_MAC_Flyer/jBXi6uK1P...
- semi-extrinsic 3y agoNot a jesus nut failure, but some versions of the Super Puma had a gearbox failure mode that caused several accidents with rotor separation from the helicopter. For example this one that led to grounding of the EC225 and several related models: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHC_Helikopter_Service_Flight_241 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHC_Helikopter_Service_Flight_...
- zzbn00 3y agoThe wikipedia article has a link to an accident investigation report where unfortunately it was not put back onto the craft after maintenance.