Qantas A380 Engine Failure

[AVION1]

Indonesia is all around Singapore, which sits at the southern tip of Malaysia, that debris is along the flight path, no biggie there.

the piece looks to be to be the trailing edge of the missing cowling that came off No. 2. that most definitely is not rudder.

Is made of honeycomb, take a look again...I don't recall of any engine nacelle or covers being made of honeycomb. And also that color and logo does not correspond to the engine. But of course, maybe I need my glasses....

[Peter Kesternich]

Well - seems like it WAS an uncontained engine failure... Check out the pictures here:

http://www.tagesschau.de/multimedia/...andung100.html (German TV)

or here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11691197

[Taliesin]

Is made of honeycomb, take a look again...I don't recall of any engine nacelle or covers being made of honeycomb. And also that color and logo does not correspond to the engine. But of course, maybe I need my glasses....

There is lots of honeycomb structure in engines. The purpose being that turbine blades can dig into it if the engine is spooled down too quickly and the casing contracts so much that it contacts the turbine blades.
It's definitely part of the engine casing and not the rudder so maybe yea, you do need glasses?

[Peter Kesternich]

Similar things have happened before like the 1980 and 1987 LOT crashes and 1989 United crash that were fatal cause was the engine turbine exploiting and disabling the planes even QANTAS not to long ago in LAX had a similar problem with the 747. The plane took off and the low pressure turbine exploded!

Turbine or compressor? That's a big difference...

[AVION1]

There is lots of honeycomb structure in engines. The purpose being that turbine blades can dig into it if the engine is spooled down too quickly and the casing contracts so much that it contacts the turbine blades.
It's definitely part of the engine casing and not the rudder so maybe yea, you do need glasses?

Here is the picture:
I don't recall that flat panel from the engine either...so yeah, maybe I need my glasses..oh well

[Taliesin]

There are photos of the plane after it landed and the rudder is still attached. Maybe that's a big clue?
Here is a photo of the same piece from another angle, you can clearly see it's shaped to fit onto an engine. Convinced now?

[Bryan]

Here is the picture:
I don't recall that flat panel from the engine either...so yeah, maybe I need my glasses..oh well

That is not a flat panel, look at the left bottom side of the image, and you can see the curve, then move up the left side of the image there is a white rectangle, beyond that there is a definite crease in the panel, in effect flattening out the curve, but it appears to me to have been bent.

[Evan]

Is made of honeycomb, take a look again...I don't recall of any engine nacelle or covers being made of honeycomb. And also that color and logo does not correspond to the engine. But of course, maybe I need my glasses....

The nacelles are carbon (CRFP). The leading and trailing edge components of the nacelles are honeycomb. That piece in the photo is the trailing edge component of the nacelle.

[Curtis Malone]

The nacelles are carbon (CRFP). The leading and trailing edge components of the nacelles are honeycomb. That piece in the photo is the trailing edge component of the nacelle.

Evan, can you please start working on a guarded anti-engine-failure switch? The safety of the traveling public can't wait a moment longer!

[mpe]

This diagram is more accurate, direct from Airbus. Looks like it came damn close though.

Interesting arrangement. Quite complex layout of the wing tanks, no CWT and a tank in the horizontal stab.

[mpe]

It looks like the failure was not contained as there is damage on the wing:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11692478

The footage on here also nicely shows the plane making a turn to the left, starting before the captain says that this is what they are doing. Even with the engine loss and wing damage the plane looks to flying fine.

[mpe]

Is the engine nacelle made of aluminum alloy or composite. My first impression is that it has the same appearance as a beer can tossed in the fire. Looking at the photos however, the color of what I think is the nacelle is a blackish almost carbon fiber colored material. They would probably burn the same?

Since the black areas look quite uniform and some of them are on the outside where something appears to have been detached (as well as some possible loss of paint). I'd guess that the outer layers of the sandwich are carbon fibre.

[Evan]

From an interview with Frank Ogilvie, aerodynamics director for the A380:

Wing taper ratio was set by the wing area and the chord, while indirect constraints included the location of the outboard engines relative to the inboard engines based on pylon box length, rotor disc burst area, engine length, wing/engine overlap and leading-edge sweep.

Is 'rotor disk burst area' referring to the wing area vulnerable to damage from uncontained engine failure?

[mpe]

The nacelles are carbon (CRFP). The leading and trailing edge components of the nacelles are honeycomb. That piece in the photo is the trailing edge component of the nacelle.

Looks to be the second largest piece. Another photo shows a piece which appears to be almost half of the circumference still holding it's shape. From the photos all of the nacelle parts wound up in the same area.

[Airfoilsguy]

This explains what a contained engine failure might look like. This is the same engine that is on the A380

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j973645y5AA

This explains why RR might be in a bit of trouble. Engine problems are nothing new to the A380

http://www.arabiansupplychain.com/article-4549-emirates-a380-engine-problems-on-paris-flight/