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When will a diesel be available for my aircraft? |
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News, facts, and comments on the coming revolution for piston-engine aircraft.
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News of October 12, 2005AD Affects Aftermarket Rods In 2,800 Lycoming Engines... How come?Facts: The FAA has issued an Airworthiness Directive AD on a certain make of connecting rod found in about 2,800 Lycoming 360- and 540-series engines in service in the U.S. The AD covers engines that have had certain ECi connecting rods installed as part of a repair or overhaul. The FAA determined that the connecting rods covered by the AD have deficiencies in the journal bores that can cause fatigue and/or bearing failure, which can result in "uncommanded shutdown" of the engine. (I love the expression...) Offending rods that have seen more than 1,500 hours of service have to be replaced within 50 hours and the others must be replaced before reaching 1,500 hours. The engines have been installed in dozens of certified and experimental aircraft. The repairs, according to the FAA's math, will cost about $700 per engine (we think it could be a lot more) and ECi has said it might give credit for returned connecting rods. Another AD affecting crankshafts in 1,128 engines in the same families takes effect on Oct. 21. The repair cost on those engines is estimated at more than $16,000 but Lycoming has said it will supply the parts for free. Avweb Newswire, 10/6/05. Comments: One of the curses on US manufacturing of aircraft engines, parts and complex systems (Lycoming is only one case among others) is that the stock market driven strategies (meaning Next Quarterly driven to beef up CEOs Stock Options) favors misunderstood cost cutting thanks to elimination of so-called fixed costs in favor of so-called "variable costs": Let us outsource manufacturing instead of doing it in-house; let us get rid of all these blue collar and white collar workers and (often) concentrate on taking advantage of the ones left by appropriating their pension funds. Why are they called "fixed costs"? Because in-house manufacturing is a guarantee of fixed quality. Ask Caterpillar, who never followed the trend and always won against powerful Japanese competition. "Variable costs", on the contrary means of course "variable quality". A manufacturers assets are his skilled, loyal employees. Once they walk out of the door, gone are your competitive davantages based on these skills, plus team work, plus memory and good will to transfer skills to the next ones. Diesel manufacturers, notably Thielert and SMA, are fully integrated. Let's hope they stay that way... posted at 4:49 AM |
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