UK’s biggest warship suffers propeller shaft damage off south coast after setting sail for US

Kukri said:
I think the original order was for 48, so that’s 47 until someone else is careless. At some point there was talk of ordering a few more, to make a total of 74 (73) but afaik that order was not placed.
Click to expand...
The number started at 138 and went down over the years and occasionally up...the outgoing PM was a friend of the Senior Service...anybody’s guess with the new girl
 
penfold said:
What was the video shown on, was it the 'fly on the wall' thing?
Click to expand...
No it was when the BBC had a film crew on board from sailing Rosyth through sea trials. I suspect the film has now been re edited however it appeared on National TV in the evening as part of a series . Shots indicating that things had moved inboard and of an unhappy thrust bearing.
 
Bilgediver said:
No it was when the BBC had a film crew on board from sailing Rosyth through sea trials. I suspect the film has now been re edited however it appeared on National TV in the evening as part of a series . Shots indicating that things had moved inboard and of an unhappy thrust bearing.
Click to expand...
I also recall that the bearing was (temporarily) fixed while underway..which is why ships have engineers onboard….also would like to point out that aircraft carriers are uniquely positioned to be able to receive spares while underway
 
Kukri said:
So, we have got twenty of them. 24 delivered, three in California, one lost because idiotically it was allowed to try to take off with a rain cover attached and the rain cover was ingested into the lift fan.

With the collapse in the £, the prices of these aircraft are rising fast.
Click to expand...
MoD has published interim report on F-35 that crashed on launch from @HMSQNLZ on 17th November 2021 #CSG21

Confirms cause was an engine blank (cover used to prevent ingress of debris) 617 Squadron engineers failed to remove before flight

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…

Crabs, eh?
 
Bilgediver said:
No it was when the BBC had a film crew on board from sailing Rosyth through sea trials. I suspect the film has now been re edited however it appeared on National TV in the evening as part of a series . Shots indicating that things had moved inboard and of an unhappy thrust bearing.
Click to expand...
A companion book was written by the film maker on board who followed the whole build.

Looking at the thrust block problem is interesting. The ACA engineers were obviously on-board with ships company Marine Engineering staff as the vessel was undertaking contractors sea trials. This involves, amongst other things, gradually increasing the load on the propulsion train to check nothing breaks. Can take several weeks of following agreed test procedures written out, and followed by interested parties. That includes a crash stop and full astern from full ahead. Which was completely successful.

In this instance a noticeable vibration was being investigated when rapidly a deteriation occurred hence the camera crew being on hand. The shaft was obviously stopped and the vessel returned for investigation of the defect.

A blade on the starboardpropellor had been incorrectly fitted as in its rubber seal was misplaced, not noticed and the securing bolts torqued up. Eventually and probably due to striking a submerged object, that blade was displaced by 26 degrees causing the vibration and potential catastrophic failure of the train.

Fortunately under the benevolent gaze of the Mighty Neptune.....rather than sofa TV surfers, disater was averted. Deep inspection revealed minute cracks in the thrustblock and the blade problem. The blade was re installed properly, a steel frame designed, manufactured and fitted to re inforce the thrust block and within 12 days the vessel was back on trials with a ships company very happy to be off from the less than wonderful run ashore at Invergordon.

So, sea trials work. The thrust block as far as I can find out, wasn't designed to cope with a thrown blade under such circumstances. Now it is.

Huzzah and huzzah for a life on the rolling deep. :)
 
Last edited:
Kukri said:
“Duh!” ?

Of course!

I will now potter off and collect my Idiot of the Week Award!

I will join the queue just astern of the blithering idiots who designed the stern gear on those ships.
Click to expand...
well it could have been worse, at least the prop never dropped off unlike that on the French version.......?
 
Kukri said:
Thank you. As you say, crabs:

https://assets.publishing.service.g.../1099593/20220819-ZM152_SI_Interim_Report.pdf

Frankly, rather disappointing.

Intake blank fitting and removal not logged! ?

No walk around the aircraft before take off? ?

The grammatical errors in the published report don’t inspire confidence, either.
Click to expand...
A walk around might not help...the turbofan must be ten foot off the ground...but what were they doing in flight control with their overhead view of everything? It is sad that such a valuable national asset is lost because an oversight....and has anybody factored in the salvage cost by the American and Royal navies?
 
Bouba said:
A walk around might not help...the turbofan must be ten foot off the ground...but what were they doing in flight control with their overhead view of everything? It is sad that such a valuable national asset is lost because an oversight....and has anybody factored in the salvage cost by the American and Royal navies?
Click to expand...

Oversight :eek: criminal negligence more like.
 
Bouba said:
I think it’s more likely that it was a job that fell through the cracks...so each person assumed it was the next blokes responsibility
Click to expand...

There have to be check lists, in fact there are the inquiry found that it had been omitted. As I say criminal negligence and very sloppy.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top