P&W Caught Illegally Selling Military Tech to China

[Brett327]

Our XO asked the P&W rep at Tailhook if the mugs he was handing out were going to shatter like the Prowler engines, the P&W rep wasn't that amused but we thought it was pretty funny.

That's fucking awesome! I wish I could have seen that.

 

[BusyBee604]

I always thought the J52-P-408 was a solid engine in the Prowler, of course I could be remembering wrong as it's been 20+ years since I've worked on a Prowler.

The P-408 was also a solid engine in the A-4E/F/M as far back as the early '70s, when it was new. Are these follow on problems related to the Prowler, high time engines, sub-standard maint./QA, or what... ? Can't be design after all these years.
BzB

 

[Brett327]

It's a long story, but they've been able to manage the risk, but there were a few years when the community didn't have a lot of confidence in the engines. One of the engine bearings was failing, causing catastrophic failure.

 

[PropAddict]

It's a long story, but they've been able to manage the risk, but there were a few years when the community didn't have a lot of confidence in the engines. One of the engine bearings was failing, causing catastrophic failure.

Was this circa 2004-2005 timeframe? I remember being an eager mid flying with a Prowler LT who was lamenting that he "had almost as many single engine traps as regular ones" after something of a rough deployment.

 

[Brett327]

Was this circa 2004-2005 timeframe? I remember being an eager mid flying with a Prowler LT who was lamenting that he "had almost as many single engine traps as regular ones" after something of a rough deployment.

These malfunctions didn't result in single engine traps, they resulted in ejections - four or five in total, if I recall. First one was late 2001, last one was 4-5 years back.