Future Nano Tech Solution - Engine Compartment Oil and Grease Leak Stopping Compounds

Not long ago, I was talking to an airframe and power plant mechanic and he had to go out on his day off and take care of an oil leak that spooked one of the pilots during his preflight. It turned out that is it was a simple problem, and it was fixed right away, but if he hadn't gone out on his day off during the weekend, the aircraft would've been grounded. It turns out the oil leak was nothing too serious, but the pilot was unsure, and for his own safety, and the safety of the very expensive $6 million aircraft he chose to not fly it.

Okay so let's talk about this for second, because maybe some of these oil leaks should be fixing themselves. Back in the old days of the radial engines, there used to be a joke that if the airplane wasn't leaking oil, that was a really bad sign, and you shouldn't fly it. In other words, they weren't supposed to leak oil, but in the modern age, we want everything to work perfect all the time, and if oil is leaking, that is almost as if the human body is bleeding, and there is a problem somewhere, a problem which needs to be looked at. We can all understand that right?

Still, what if we had a future nano tech solution for this problem? Perhaps we could put nanoparticles at all the fittings, and along the hoses, it might be a coating of some type. When there was an oil leak all the nanoparticles would get together and swarm the leak to stop the bleeding so to speak? Right now, we have bioengineered blood which coagulates very quickly and seals up wounds for soldiers. This of course is applied by a human, perhaps a medic, self-medicating, or by one of the soldier's buddies on the battlefield. Perhaps in the future all of this could be done simultaneously from inside the uniform, but I digress.

It's not that the digression wasn't needed, or shouldn't have been stated however, because if we took that same theory of that obvious future innovation and applied it inside the cowling of an aircraft we could essentially do the same thing; self-healing oil leak fixing. Perhaps we should be thinking about this for pipelines, water lines, engines, and a host of other things. It makes sense, and future smart materials should be able to do this.

After all we have self-cleaning windows, and titanium dioxide which automatically cleans stainless steel kitchen equipment. It's not such a far-fetched idea. Therefore, I ask that you please consider all this and think on.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Future Concepts. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net/

Qantas Grounds Airbus A380 Fleet After Engine Failure - Voice of America

Brian Padden | Jakarta 04 November 2010

Firefighters surround a Qantas passenger plane which made an emergency landing in Singapore's Changi International Airport after having engine problems, 04 Nov 2010

Qantas Airways says it will suspend all Airbus A380 flights until they determine the cause of an engine failure that occurred earlier in the day.

A Qantas spokeswoman says Flight QF32 was en route from Singapore to Sydney when one of the A380 jet's four engines shut down.

Aviation industry consultant Gerry Soejatman says the airline industry term for what occurred is an uncontained engine failure.

"That means the engine failed in a manner in which it could not be contained in the engine itself.  So there would be parts flying around," he said.

Witnesses on the Indonesian island of Batam near Singapore reported hearing an explosion as the plane passed over, and found debris that appeared to be from an aircraft.

Tatang Kurnia, head of Indonesia's Transportation Safety Board, says there are pieces of debris in Batam with red coloring on it and Singapore confirmed that an airplane in the area dumped fuel to make an emergency landing.

The plane returned to Singapore as a precaution. There were initial fears the Airbus 380 had crashed.

No injuries among 459 people on board have been reported, but in Batam two people were reportedly hit by falling debris.

The cause of the engine failure has not been reported.  Australian aviation safety officials are on their way to Singapore to check the aircraft and the flight recorder.  Soejatman says it is not surprising that the incident occurred during take-off.

"During the take-off phase of the flight, it is the time when the engines are put at most strain, after it shut down from the previous flight," he said.  "So that is mechanically the riskiest part of the flight."

There are 37 Airbus A380 aircraft in use around the world.  Qantas has six in operation and 20 more on order.  The planes are the largest passenger aircraft and some can carry up to 800 people.

News of this incident comes at a time when airlines around the world are on high alert after discovery of bombs packed in air cargo in Europe.

View the original article here