AgustaWestland AW139 shed its tailboom in Doha

[rotorhead350]

Had it confirmed to me this morning that a Gulf Helicopters AW139 lost its tailboom while taxiing for takeoff yesterday. No more news to report at this time. I know from experience with the 139 that there are lots of problems with delamination on the tailboom close to the attach points. We have changed 2 tailbooms in the past year on the SAR contract machines, and at the main hangar our fleet of 139s have had numerous more. Be interesting to see what Agusta has to say about this!

[sky's the limit]

That's got to be a bit disconcerting for the crews, no?

stl

[rotorhead350]

Here's a pic of the machine!

[sky's the limit]

Jesus. Really? All on it's own? Wow.

That's not a confidence inspiring photograph. I bet the crew is out buying lottery tickets, a minutes later and that would have been catastrophic.

stl

[rotorhead350]

There have been reports of that aircraft having a tailboom strike offshore in March, and Agusta coming out and doing a structural inspection and repairs and subsequently giving it a release. I know from experience with one of our 139s that Agusta repaired a delamination on the tailboom and the repair lasted all of 11 hours before we had to replace the whole thing.

rh350

[sky's the limit]

That's going to be an expensive exercise for AW. Just glad this didn't turn out differently.

stl

[kingeddie]

Yikes ... Flight into known ice IFR . I wonder if my tailboom will fall off ????????

Tim Hortins is hiring .

Eddie

[2.5milefinal]

I bet they are thinking hard about if they should be doing Tailboom repairs anymore.

http://www.slv.dk/Dokumenter/dsweb/Get/ ... 8-0157.pdf

[SeptRepair]

They should be thinking if using composite in a tail boom structure is really that good of an idea. Like an old structures buddy of mine said once. "If aint got rivets you cant trust it".

[Bullet Remington]

They should be thinking if using composite in a tail boom structure is really that good of an idea. Like an old structures buddy of mine said once. "If aint got rivets you cant trust it".

Your budy's right,Sept Repair. Metal will talk to ya and you'd better listen!! Composites are like a good looking woman who knows she's good looking. Won't say a freakin thing to ya, but will bite you indiscriminately without warning!

I hate composites, even for fairings! I understand why they're used for secondary items, but I can't understand why they're used for primary strutural elements!

[Big Pratt]

More pics
http://www.avweb.com/avwebbiz/news/Tail ... ionGallery

I smell a movie deal! "Lucky Basterds"

Composites are like a good looking woman who knows she's good looking. Won't say a freakin thing to ya, but will bite you indiscriminately without warning!

Should've said this to Guy Laliberte about 10 years ago...

BP

[Heliian]

Composites are stronger and lighter than other materials and technologies are advancing everyday. Pilots on the other hand still have a tendancy to chop off their tailbooms when pulling aft cyclic with little collective input. Maybe they got cut off by another a/c on the taxiway and tried to stop?

[Bullet Remington]

More pics
http://www.avweb.com/avwebbiz/news/Tail ... ionGallery

I smell a movie deal! "Lucky Basterds"

Composites are like a good looking woman who knows she's good looking. Won't say a freakin thing to ya, but will bite you indiscriminately without warning!

Should've said this to Guy Laliberte about 10 years ago...

BP

BP: Guy Laliberte don't ring a Bell 9 no pun intended) with me!! Is he associated with the truckload of 520N s in PQ??

[Bullet Remington]

Composites are stronger and lighter than other materials and technologies are advancing everyday. Pilots on the other hand still have a tendancy to chop off their tailbooms when pulling aft cyclic with little collective input. Maybe they got cut off by another a/c on the taxiway and tried to stop?

Heliian:

Are you being serious??? Have you actually seen/ read an accident report / or have first hand knowledge , of a pilot/ driver ( and I quote you here) ..."Pilots on the other hnad still have a tendency to chop off their tailbooms when pullingaft cyclic with LITTLE collective input."

With 30 plus years in this business, I've NEVER seen it!! NEVER!! I HAVE seen mast bumping on a R22, but never what you've implied!!

As for your statement, "maybe they got it cut off by another a/c on the taxiway and tried to stop."WTF?? I would recommend that you read all the prior posts before making such an unqualified post!! From my interactions with people directly associated with this company, the statements made on this post is correct: 1) The machine had previously suffered a tailboom strike AND that tial boom was repaired by Augusta in-situ; 2) The crew were ground taxiing to a take-off position withhout another aircraft in the vicinity. The tail book went into this monkey motion on its own!!

As for composites being stronger and lighter then öther "materials"..ya think?? I have seen composite vertical stab come off aircraft in flight and kill `120 people plus, I have seen composite panels come off military fighters and destroy the complete machine, I have seen catastrophic failure of mega vital aircraft and helicopters composite structures. I don't give a flying fugg about the opinions of designers and others!! Composites SHOULE NEVER be used in the PRIMARY structural element of ANY aircraft / helicopter component! AND this incident clearly qualifies what i have be stating for years!

My opinion is based upon 30 years as a "B" and a "S"licensed engineer!

[SeptRepair]

You have got it so right Bullet. I have no faith in Composite. Ive been smashing rivets for 22 years and have always cringed around composites. Inspecting composite structures by coin tapping or any other tap method is individually subjective. So individual, that 10 guys performing an inspection for delamination will come up with 10 different delam patterns if indeed delam is present. A guy can be off by a couple of inches and thats all it can take to be between critical damage and negligable damage on a primary structure. It takes an extremely experienced composite guy to make those judgement calls and I feel the average engineer who conducts inspections ( especially coin tapping ones), for the most part lack that experience. Furthermore, repairing a composite structure has so may variables that can determine if your repair is sound or marginally acceptable. Its not like a sheet metal repair. Composite repair takes the proper conditions including humidity control, temperature, mixing procedures, contaminates on the parent material, improper weave lay out, etc. Give me a rivet gun and some aluminum and I will guarantee my repair will not fail. Composites have a place in secondary structures and fairings.

[2.5milefinal]

Heliian
I don't like to direct people to other forums but you really should go read the very lengthy thread on PPRuNe that deals with this accident.

[bonusboy]

Lol you old sheetbashers are too funny, how about you make me a 12" sphere .020 thick out of aluminum and i'll make one out of composites...we'll see who's is stronger. Not only that but i'll even delam mine before i test . Like all men your visually stimulated. Lots of BIG rivets then it must be strong!

[Bullet Remington]

Lol you old sheetbashers are too funny, how about you make me a 12" sphere .020 thick out of aluminum and i'll make one out of composites...we'll see who's is stronger. Not only that but i'll even delam mine before i test . Like all men your visually stimulated. Lots of BIG rivets then it must be strong!

Well Boy, i'm glad us OLD Metal Bashers gave you smoething to laugh about. I looked backthrough the posts and feel free to correct me, BUT I don't believe anybody, least wise me, said that metal wa stronger them composites.

Haveing said that I would love to accept your challenge albeit with a couple of stipulations. # 1, you DON"T delaminate yours, AND you make yours .040 while my metal sphere stays at .020. Now after we finish these, here's the second stip[ulation.

These spheres must be pressurized to 5.2 psi repeatedly until one of them fails. I'll bet you 10 to 1 that my ugly old metal sphere with those big rivets will still be holding pressure while the conmposite one you made has failed. I know because I've already done been challeneged by a snot nosed whiz kid that thought composites were the latest and greatest (NOt impying that you're a snot nosed whiz kid)

What I and i assume Sept Repair was inferring was, fior any structure where flexing, bending , twisting , torsion and expansive loads are being applied repetitively, metal is much better then composities. there is a reason why all these Pinky Engineers are reluctant to use composities as PSE on high flying pressurized aircraft.

And I am awaiting, rather tentatively for the Launch of the new Boeing dreamliner. I'm wondering just how the Boeing Engineers are goingto set the inspection standards for the pressure bulkheads! Adn I'm wondering whether they'll be lifed?

Gonna be a real bitch trying to repair the aft pressure bulkhead and costly. Oh about 300% more expensive then repairing the 1019 bulkhead on the B737 now!!

[The Mole]

Sooooooo... are composite rotor heads out to.

[sky's the limit]

Sooooooo... are composite rotor heads out to.

Guess I'd better stay out of my Eurocopter now.....

stl