Trent 900

[pipme]

Trent 900 engine developed for Airbus A380 awarded airworthiness certificate... less than 20 months since engine first run and on schedule.
198 reports needed for the certification and that with 10 million hours of trent experience to draw on !!
Singapore Airlines is the launch customer for A380, spring 2006 .. shes a big 'un alright !!

 

[AdamW]

Trent 900 engines... BIIIIIIG turbines.

With jet engines they usually do a test where they chuck a big bird through it and the engine must survive.

I reckon with the A380 engines they chuck a 737 through it

I was thinking this the other day, the number of aviation firsts for Europe:

1) First helicopter
2) First powered flight (if you include that massive steam-powered bu**er made by Maxwell, I think)
3) First jet liner
4) First supersonic jet liner
5) Most reliable jet liner (did Concord retain this after Paris?)
6) Largest and heaviest jet liner (possibly largest and heaviest aeroplane?)
7) First mass-produced VSTOL jet.
8) Largest and heaviest supersonic aeroplane (I think Concord is considerably larger than the XB-70 Valkyrie)

All but 1 of these were either entirely British or a large part British. We would have got first supersonic manned flight too, if the government hadn't withdrawn funding.

Not to mention that UK was the third nation on earth to successfully launch a satellite into space, in 1971 I believe.

What a proud aerospace heritage we have!

 

[jasy]

good old bristol

 

[pipme]

Trent 900 engines... BIIIIIIG turbines.
With jet engines they usually do a test where they chuck a big bird through it and the engine must survive.
!

Yonks ago, allegedly, we did store the bird carcassess in deep freeze, yep, forgot to write and implement a procedure to thaw them out before conducting test .... whoops ! no engine core

 

[pipme]

good old bristol

Bristols of any age will suffice !!

 

[AdamW]

good old bristol

Plus many places in Hertfordshire!

If you drive through Hatfield, there are streets with names like DeHavilland Way, Concorde Way.

 

[mildmanneredjanitor]

Yonks ago, allegedly, we did store the bird carcassess in deep freeze, yep, forgot to write and implement a procedure to thaw them out before conducting test .... whoops ! no engine core

I think this may be an urban myth though, I heard it was during canopy testing?

 

[pipme]

Ah 'twas an urbane statement as opposed to urban.

To have worked for the legends at Bristol-Siddeley ... Pegasus, Olymp 593 ... No greater kick than the old 593's lighting up in the 'first lady's' tail .... power plus !!
P

 

[planenut]

I live within a passengers f*rt of Heathrow, with all it's noises and smells. I really loved Concorde, and I really miss the sound of her.
Another truly remarkable, awesome sound was that of the Vulcan, on take off, coming over the rise of a sleepy airfield runway, like some roaring prehistoric monster.
The reduction in noise levels from jets has been tremendous and with the advancement of this next phase in RR jet engines comes more respite for those around this area who didn't try to identify aircraft by their noises.

As to throwing the old bird into the engine intake? funnily enough Janet Street-Porter came to mind.

 

[kevplumb]

like it

 

[pipme]

F'k me I thought old S-P (I'm as hard as nails but, I don't like mashed potato .. sulk ) had already been through the turbine, at least twice !!

You would have liked the Vulcan which took out the petrol pumps at the A38 end of Filton airfield (what was that about - a filling station at the end of the runway .. long gone now) On take off she developed a problem, beyond the crucial point, they wound her up and were almost vertical passing over the filling station, flattening the pumps and doing a paint strip job on a passing double-decker bus with her jet wash !!
She returned safely.
http://www.famousvulcans.co.uk/xa903.htm

Neat Concorde timeline :- http://www.airpictorial.com/pages/concordeChronology.html

 

[planenut]

Pipme! thank you for the web links - great.

 

[IanDB]

Not to mention that UK was the third nation on earth to successfully launch a satellite into space, in 1971 I believe.

I was a bit too young to take much interest in this but it was around 1961. I remember talking to a "man from the ministry" once. He was talking about a recent scheme to employ young people to build dry stone walls in the area. He recalled witnessing the destruction of Blue Streak rockets following the abandonment of the satellite programme after our abortive attempt to get a object into space. (As it happened I believe that the launch and orbit was achieved but the satellite didn't deploy correctly. Government pulls plug on programme as it doesn't see a future in space technology, communications, etc. .) His comment was that we used to have a space programme and now we train our youth to build dry stone walls.

This sounds like one for Pipme.

 

[pipme]

I guess this is why labour has been vaunted as the wastrels ... they are / were, not generally from 'business' people, hence will waste our tax money due to the inability to 'run' anything properly.
Having said that .. there seems little between any of the parties with respect to seeing any large project through without spending silly sums on SFA ... Funny, if it was not so expensive, how we seem to be good at calculating how something will not be viable or cost effective, after embarking on the project and getting the thick end of it sorted.
P

 

[AdamW]

Yes pip, you are right. We had a whole wealth of research and information on rocket engines. Yet we then decided "bo**ocks to it all" and specialised in satellites. Whereas the French decided that getting into space was now a matter of national pride, so they chucked in a load of money and then later found a commercial use for it.

The start of the satellite telecoms industry was only a few years after we proved our satellite launching capabilities!

We were involved in the HOTOL programme years ago, but in the end the UK government pulled out all their support because they realised that it was turning into a "Let's get a Frenchman in space" programme, and the UK government still has no plans on funding human space exploration.

Perhaps it is our germanic origins, being logical where a bit of passion would be useful! Can't really imagine Ferrari engineers saying "600bhp is all well and good, but how can we fit some more airbags into this thing?".