What is the problem with the Boeing Dreamliner engine?
This particular pair of planes have been sitting in storage since May of 2019. They were among dozens of Dreamliners grounded due to turbine blade corrosion issues with their Rolls Royce Trent 1000 engines.
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The problem involves a fitting for the 787's horizontal stabilizer installed by a Boeing production facility in Salt Lake City, Utah, the company said. The horizontal stabilizer, located at the base of an aircraft's tail, allows a plane to maintain longitudinal balance while flying.
The typical lifespan of airlinersThe composite-driven Boeing 787 Dreamliner is designed for 44,000 flight cycles. These jets can theoretically last several decades with an average of two flight cycles a day. Unlike commercial airliners, fighter jets are unique due to their mission requirements.
The longer the 787s remained on the ground, the more it would cost to get them to fly again, due to the maintenance work required. As a result, they were no longer airworthy.
The latest issue affects a fitting assembly in horizontal stabilizers built by a Boeing facility in Salt Lake City. The fittings come from an external supplier, and each unit is assembled and installed onto stabilizers in Salt Lake, a Boeing source said.
The Dreamliner is a successful aircraft, still in production with more than 1600 delivered or on order. The list price for a new Boeing 787-8 is $239 million dollars. Yet even as international travel opens again for these long-range aircraft, two Dreamliners barely ten years old are waiting for the wrecker's ball.
As with every Boeing airplane, the 787 includes many layers of redundancy for continued safe operation, and the electrical system is no exception. For example, Boeing has demonstrated that the 787 can fly for more than 330 minutes on only one engine and one of the six generators and land safely.
The Boeing 787 is known to be a more comfortable and efficient aircraft than the 747, especially for long-haul flights. There are objective differences between both planes. The 787 has newer engines, two fewer of them and more electrical (rather than hydraulic) systems, which means much less cabin noise.
What was the 787 meant to replace? At launch, Boeing targeted the 787 with 20% less fuel burn than replaced aircraft like the Boeing 767, carrying 200 to 300 passengers on point-to-point routes up to 8,500 nautical miles [nmi] (15,700 km; 9,800 mi), a shift from hub-and-spoke travel.
Ecologically, and compared to previous generation wide-body aircraft, the Dreamliner has avoided more than 85 billion pounds of carbon emissions, achieved 20-25% greater fuel efficiency, realized 20-45% more cargo revenue capacity, and produced a 60% smaller airport noise footprint.
Like the 777, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner can fly up to 330 minutes (five hours and a half) as a single-engine plane if one engine fails. This is supported by carrying an ETOPS-330 certification.
The 787 can easily and more efficiently operate many of the routes the 777 was designed for. As such, many airlines have either upgraded to the 787 or are awaiting the arrival of the next-generation 777X.