The turmoil of Rolls-Royce’s (RR.) embattled Trent 1000 engine programme has spread to its Trent 1000 TEN upgrade, which forced Singapore Airlines to ground two airplanes on 2 April.
Singapore Airlines said in a statement: “During recent routine inspections of Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 TEN engines on Singapore Airlines’ Boeing 787-10 fleet, premature blade deterioration was found on some engines.” Two planes, each carrying two engines, were subsequently grounded.
The engine entered into service in November 2017, and Singapore took delivery of its first TEN-powered 787-10 in March 2018. The Trent programme has been dogged by blade-related technical issues. There were 34 planes grounded by Rolls-Royce engine problems in 2018, up from 18 in 2017. Additional inspections, repairs and redesigns meant the group increased the exceptional charge on the Trent 1000 to £790m at its full-year results in February 2019.
Since entering service “Rolls-Royce has communicated to operators that the high-pressure turbine blades in these engines would have a limited life cycle,” the engine manufacturer said in a statement.
Rolls-Royce has been sampling a small population of the TEN fleet that have flown in arduous conditions. “This work has shown that a small number of these engines need to have their blades replaced earlier than scheduled,” it added.
A spokesperson for Boeing confirmed that the airline manufacturer is “working with Rolls-Royce to address a previously-known durability issue with the blades for Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 TEN engines that has recently been detected in fleet inspections”.
The issues surrounding the blades in the TEN appear to have become known to Rolls-Royce and Boeing in the period following Rolls-Royce’s full-year results on 28 February 2019, when chief executive Warren East confirmed that Rolls-Royce had received approval to switch the engine from a “hard life limit” to an “inspection regime”.
“And as we inspect those engines, we’ve discovered no issues whatsoever to date on the Trent 1000 TEN,” he said. Mr East added that the regime “has saved our customers an awful lot of disruption by resolving and removing that hard life limit”. Rolls-Royce did not respond to a request seeking to clarify when the engine problems were discovered.
At the time of the release of full-year results in February, Rolls-Royce said it expected cash costs of around £450m to resolve Trent 1000 in-service issues.
Morgan Stanley estimates that the TEN makes up around 140 of the total 610 Trent 1000 engines in service. It is not yet clear which other airlines might be affected by the disruption to the engine. Tui (TUI) is safe, as its Boeing 787s are fitted with General Electric (US:GE) engines. British Airways, meanwhile, uses Trent 1000 engines in its 787 jets, but not the Trent 1000 TEN, a spokesperson for the company confirmed.
