XH558...

[central]

@XH558 said:

Crew in

[central]

@XH558 said:

Engines started. Taxi..

[central]

@XH558 said:

XH558 is airborne

[central]

@XH558 said:

Circuits at Waddington

[central]

@XH558 said:

Leaving Waddington.. enroute Newark Air Museum

[central]

@XH558 said:

XH558 has now landed

[gmk666]

Driving up to see my parents in Doncaster, we were just driving out of Bawtry when my 4-year-old daughter says, "Wow, look at that plane, Daddy!"
Looked up to see XH558 on what I assume was a final approach into Robin Hood.
So weird to think I'll probably have said exactly the same thing thirty odd years ago.
I'll post a crappy iPhone pic later.

[AndyNetwork]

Hooli said:

mad4amanda said:

MrAndyW said:

Just got from there now. Got couple of photos and small vids, I will post up tommorow,Landed at Donny, no snags, CAA test pilot said she was the best she's ever been. Well done to all the groundcrew and donators (if there's such a word)
Andy.

Donors?

So good to hear that she is being kept so well its a major achievement in this day and age , does anyone know how many hours there are left on the airframe etc

About the same as hours on the engines I think, of which there are no more replacements to be found.

I believe that VTS have a couple of engines spare, with lower flying time on them. They were considering fitting them over the winter, in order to keep her flying longer, but due to the money situation, thought it better to leave the existing engines in situ, and replace when necessary.

[mrloudly]

I know these items are "Lifed" but is it not possible to extend past this and operate "On Condition" as with civilian aircraft?

[Leadfoot]

Plenty of parts in civilian engines are on a life limit too, usually the rotating parts.

[mrloudly]

Leadfoot said:

Plenty of parts in civilian engines are on a life limit too, usually the rotating parts.

They are on a limit but in certain aircraft you can continue past this
running on what is termed as "On Condition". I got nearly 2500 hrs out of an Lycoming that was officially considered "Time expired" at 2000 hrs

[eccles]

mrloudly said:

Leadfoot said:

Plenty of parts in civilian engines are on a life limit too, usually the rotating parts.

They are on a limit but in certain aircraft you can continue past this
running on what is termed as "On Condition". I got nearly 2500 hrs out of an Lycoming that was officially considered "Time expired" at 2000 hrs

You'd be happy flying in an airliner with turbine blades that were on condition?
Certain parts can only have their life extended so far and critical bits will rarely be "on condition".

[MartG]

There's also a bit of a difference between a Lycoming piston engine letting go at a few thousand rpm and an Olympus going bang at several tens of thousands of rpm - not to mention the value of the aircraft that could be lost as a result

[Seight_Returns]

Only repeating what I've read elsewhere - but AIUI since the version of the Olympus in XH558 was never operated commercially, there are no metrics that the CAA was prepared to accept as to how many hours they could be operated for. VTTS therefore got the CAA to agree the service life of their pool of zero houred engines on the basis of the metrics for the version of the Olymous that was used in Concorde - even thought that version of the Olympus was known to wear out certain bearings much quicker than the Vulcan engines.

I recall that they started with a pool of 8 zero houred engines - and as of last year they were down to 6 airworthy ones.

Vague recollection though - happy to be corrected on any of the above.

[FourWheelDrift]

XH558 is fitted with the earlier Olympus 202 engines (201s with rapid start) and 10 of the 18 other surviving Vulcans are Olympus 301 engined versions such as the working fast taxiable XM655 at Wellesbourne. Although some 200 series Vulcans were retro fitted with 301s I think the cost to convert to 301s if available would be too much for VTS. The only working 200 series engines are 201s in XL426 at Southend and I don't think they would give them up either.

I wonder what Rolls-Royce has in the bowels of it's stores in regards to tools and build equipment. I wonder how much it would be to build new ones if possible.

[Jureth]

FourWheelDrift said:

XH558 is fitted with the earlier Olympus 202 engines (201s with rapid start) and 10 of the 18 other surviving Vulcans are Olympus 301 engined versions such as the working fast taxiable XM655 at Wellesbourne. Although some 200 series Vulcans were retro fitted with 301s I think the cost to convert to 301s if available would be too much for VTS. The only working 200 series engines are 201s in XL426 at Southend and I don't think they would give them up either.

I wonder what Rolls-Royce has in the bowels of it's stores in regards to tools and build equipment. I wonder how much it would be to build new ones if possible.

I would imagine that it will be well beyond the pockets of VTS sadly.

[mrloudly]

eccles said:

mrloudly said:

Leadfoot said:

Plenty of parts in civilian engines are on a life limit too, usually the rotating parts.

They are on a limit but in certain aircraft you can continue past this
running on what is termed as "On Condition". I got nearly 2500 hrs out of an Lycoming that was officially considered "Time expired" at 2000 hrs

You'd be happy flying in an airliner with turbine blades that were on condition?
Certain parts can only have their life extended so far and critical bits will rarely be "on condition".

As long as they have been inspected properly quite happy. I like the old saying "If it ain't bust don't fix it"... Never like getting on brand new low houred airliners.
Qantas 380 is a classic example! If it manages 2000hrs I'm sure it'll get to three (with the correct inspections).

[mat777]

^^ +1 - The way the airline and aircraft manufacturing industry works these days, a 10 year old aircraft is perversely far more reliable than a new model due to all the preventative maintenance and component lifespan bugs being ironed out.


Anyway, back on the subject of BB, this is proudly flying as a special 1-day-only profile banner on my Facebook page:

[Leadfoot]

mrloudly said:

eccles said:

mrloudly said:

Leadfoot said:

Plenty of parts in civilian engines are on a life limit too, usually the rotating parts.

They are on a limit but in certain aircraft you can continue past this
running on what is termed as "On Condition". I got nearly 2500 hrs out of an Lycoming that was officially considered "Time expired" at 2000 hrs

You'd be happy flying in an airliner with turbine blades that were on condition?
Certain parts can only have their life extended so far and critical bits will rarely be "on condition".

As long as they have been inspected properly quite happy. I like the old saying "If it ain't bust don't fix it"... Never like getting on brand new low houred airliners.
Qantas 380 is a classic example! If it manages 2000hrs I'm sure it'll get to three (with the correct inspections).

I meant commercial airliner jet engines, not light aircraft piston engines (on a private C of A?).

The life limited parts can't be inspected without dismantling the engine anyway - bits like fan/turbine discs (not the blades), shafts & compressor drums. You might just as well overhaul the engine & "zero time" it at that stage.
They'd have to be x-rayed to inspect them, but I believe they're scrapped due to the stresses involved & the consequence of failure - the Sioux City DC10 was a fan disc failure.
Life limited parts of a modern jet engine have very long life...

Page 3 of this link (1st thing google threw up) gives an insight into LLPs on 737 engines.

http://www.aircraft-commerce.com/sample_articles/s...

[mrloudly]

Leadfoot said:

mrloudly said:

eccles said:

mrloudly said:

Leadfoot said:

Plenty of parts in civilian engines are on a life limit too, usually the rotating parts.

They are on a limit but in certain aircraft you can continue past this
running on what is termed as "On Condition". I got nearly 2500 hrs out of an Lycoming that was officially considered "Time expired" at 2000 hrs

You'd be happy flying in an airliner with turbine blades that were on condition?
Certain parts can only have their life extended so far and critical bits will rarely be "on condition".

As long as they have been inspected properly quite happy. I like the old saying "If it ain't bust don't fix it"... Never like getting on brand new low houred airliners.
Qantas 380 is a classic example! If it manages 2000hrs I'm sure it'll get to three (with the correct inspections).

I meant commercial airliner jet engines, not light aircraft piston engines (on a private C of A?).

The life limited parts can't be inspected without dismantling the engine anyway - bits like fan/turbine discs (not the blades), shafts & compressor drums. You might just as well overhaul the engine & "zero time" it at that stage.
They'd have to be x-rayed to inspect them, but I believe they're scrapped due to the stresses involved & the consequence of failure - the Sioux City DC10 was a fan disc failure.
Life limited parts of a modern jet engine have very long life...

Page 3 of this link (1st thing google threw up) gives an insight into LLPs on 737 engines.

http://www.aircraft-commerce.com/sample_articles/s...

The Sioux city was a hidden manufacturing fault though, hence my reason in preferring older aircraft ;-) It's OK scrapping lifed components if you have new replacements, in this case there isn't any...
So is it possible to strip/inspect "zero time" the units and in effect run them "On condition"?
You are also correct that it's not possible to run "on condition" with a public cat CoA I thought 558 was on a "permit" anyhow?