For the second time this summer, a General Electric Co.-built GEnx engine failed as a cargo jet revved up for takeoff Sept. 11 in Shanghai.
Pilots with Air Bridge Cargo aborted the Boeing 747 freighter”™s flight after the GEnx engine”™s low-pressure turbine failed.
Manufactured by GE Aviation, the GEnx engine is a dual-shaft engine in which one shaft connects a compressor spool at one end to a high-pressure turbine spool at the other end. A longer fan shaft connects the fan and booster in the front of the engine to the low-pressure turbine in the back.
Fairfield-based GE says the GEnx will be its “workhorse engine of the 21st century,” with the GEnx installed to date on Boeing 787 and 747 jets.
In late July, the latter shaft in a GEnx engine fractured during ground tests in Charleston, S.C., just weeks after GE had touted the engine’s early performance after nine months and 100 engines in service.
According to multiple reports, the National Transportation Safety Board has since been focusing on whether a new coating used for the shaft could have caused the Charleston failure, and investigators have been conducting ultrasound tests on other GEnx engines.
