A400M Engine Repairs Brought Forward

Repairs of Defective A400M Engines Brought Forward; new reduction gear already certified by EASA

Airbus has brought forward by 1.5 months the retrofit of modified Propeller Gear Box (PGB) to A400M airlifters already in service, but it is as yet unclear how many aircraft will be delivered and how many be retrofitted by year-end. (Europrop photo)

Airbus will begin changing parts of the A400M engines that have caused the latest problems in the military airlifter assembled in Seville. Although it initially said the first replacements would be made in September, Airbus has managed to advance the process by a month and a half. Thus, the 27 aircraft already delivered to customers will have to pass one by one through the workshop to be equipped with a new Propeller Gear Box (PGB) which has already been approved by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

The defect, identified earlier this year, affects two of the aircraft’s four engines -- those that turn clockwise – where cracks have been found in the PGB which caused the release of metal parts into the oil system. This, in extreme situations, could cause the engine to stop in midair.

In the past months Airbus Defence and Space, the division responsible for the A400M program, has worked in close cooperation with the supplier of the gearboxes, Avio (an Italian subsidiary of General Electric), to develop a defect-free replacement part. This new part received the relevant certification by the EASA on July 8, allowing it to be installed on military aircraft.

This is only an interim solution, and the company plans to have a definitive fix in place sometime next year. But it will at least serve as a temporary remedy, allowing aircraft to which it is fitted to be inspected every 650 flight hours, instead of every 200 as is now the case, giving them more autonomy and allowing them to operate almost normally.

In the midst of this process, the big question now is how many modified PGBs Avio can supply, and how this will impact Airbus’ previous commitment to deliver 20 A400Ms this year, as everything indicates will be virtually impossible to achieve.

The extra costs caused by the replacement of those PGBs is another point that will have to be addressed in the coming months, as will how the additional costs – and penalties for late delivery -- will ultimately be divided between Airbus and Avio.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Airbus needs two modified PGBs for each of the 27 A400Ms already delivered that it must retrofit, in addition to two for each aircraft it delivers this year, as well as hangar space and workers to retrofit the 27, so implementation of the interim fix is likely to prove time-consuming and expensive.
And, of course, the entire process will have to begin again once the new, definitive fix is found and approved by EASA – and no-one knows how many aircraft will have been delivered by then, all of which will require retrofit.)

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