Lycoming engines

[kallend 2,166]

Indirectly related to safety. I'm sure the moderator will move it if this is the wrong place.

> A jury in Grimes County, Texas has found Textron Lycoming (NYSE:TXT)
> liable for fraud, and ordered the company to pay approximately $96
> million to Navasota, Texas-based Interstate Southwest Ltd. The
> verdict came Tuesday following seven weeks of trial in State District
> Judge Jerry Sandel's 278th Judicial District Court in Anderson,
> Texas.
>
> The jury's award includes $9,725,650 in actual damages and another
> $86,394,763 in punitive damages. In addition, the verdict effectively
> precludes Lycoming from pursuing a $173 million indemnity claim
> against Interstate, which it had previously filed in a Pennsylvania
> court.
>
> "This is a total victory for our side," says attorney Marty Rose, who
> represents Interstate Southwest. "Between the verdict and its impact
> on the indemnity claim -- we couldn't have hoped for a better
> result."
>
> The case revolves around a number of small airplane engine failures
> that occurred when the airplanes' crankshafts broke in flight.
> Between 2000 and 2002, there were 24 failures and 12 deaths in
> Cessnas, Pipers and other airplanes with Lycoming aircraft engines.
> Interstate Southwest supplied Lycoming with the crankshaft forgings
> for those engines.
>
> Following the failures, Lycoming launched an investigation aimed at
> determining the cause. Its conclusion was that Interstate Southwest
> had overheated the forgings, weakening the steel.
>
> But attorneys for Interstate, Mr. Rose and Hal Walker of Rose Walker
> in Dallas, found a different cause. Their experts were able to
> determine that Lycoming's design for the crankshafts, which dates
> back to smaller, lower horsepower engines from 40 years ago, was
> inadequate for the larger, higher horsepower engines that failed.
>
> They also found that by adding Vanadium to the steel -- something
> Lycoming decided to do just before the failures began -- the company
> further limited the amount of stress the crankshafts could withstand.
> Lycoming had added Vanadium to make the steel harder and reduce the
> number of machining operations, ultimately saving the company money.
>
> Ultimately, jurors agreed with lawyers for Interstate, and found that
> even Lycoming's investigation of the crankshaft failures was
> fraudulent.
>
> "The jurors found the combination of poor design and Vanadium pushed
> these crankshafts beyond their limits," says Hal Walker. "That's why
> these planes crashed, and not, as Lycoming claimed, because
> Interstate overheated the forgings."

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[nicknitro71 0]

You pay 20+ grand for a super low tech piece of crap so that it's "approved" by the FAA.

Things must change to engine choice for general aviation.

In the home built niche people are having great results with subaru engines.

It's time for FAA to make things easier for getting the sticker.

Memento Audere Semper

903

[pilotdave 0]

I totally disagree. Aircraft engine certification is very serious stuff. Add in electronic systems (digital engine controls, FADECs, etc), which will be pretty much standard on all future aircraft engines, and things get extremely complex. You might be surprised by how much analysis goes into engine certification and engine installation certification (by the aircraft manufacturer).

Homebuilders are having great success with low compression, low horsepower auto engine conversions for experimental aircraft. The affected engines in the lycoming case were big 540s I think.

I'm currently working on some of the certification documentation to install new engines on an existing helicopter airframe. I have no problem with the FAA allowing experimental aircraft to use experimental engines, but they have no place on certified aircraft.

BTW, the FAA report on the crankshaft failures faults the crankshaft maker, not lycoming. This may very well just be a case of who hired the better lawyers.

Dave