AIRMMCPORET
Plan âA/Bâ Retired
They are killer whales.
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USS Benfold engineering casualty
- Thread starter snake020
- Start date
Doesnât have to be single pointâŚcascading failures are a thing, and once things start to go down, it can actually get worse.WaPo and Guardian are reporting USS Benfold had a total loss of power for four days in late July and had to be towed to Subic.
US Navy destroyer adrift in South China Sea for four days after losing power
USS Benfold lost power after âengineering casualtyâ leaving sailors without galley services, toilets and air conditioningwww.theguardian.com
With three GTGs and switchboards, what could have been a single point of failure causing a total casualty? Contaminated fuel?
Donât actually know the full details here, but once you go cold, different ships have different level of capabilities to restart. Pretty sure a bunch of aviators should be generally familiar with the technical challenge of starting up a turbine from cold iron.
Modern airplanes have the ability to start a motor on the ground via an external cart, an onboard APU, and cross-bleeding from one engine to another. Airborne they can use the APU , cross-bleeding, as well as via windmilling (if you have the altitude and airspeed available).
This tech fits into a 12,500 lbs airplane. I hope it also fits into a boat the size of a DDG.
Maybe thatâs what happened to the USS Guardian in 2013âŚâenraged killer whalesâ
HP air is the only way to start the first GTG from a dead bus and you only have a limited number of starts on Flight I's and II's. And that number goes down if you have to motor between starts or if you have leaks in the air flasks. You need power to recharge the air flasks via the HPAC's. Once the first engine is started you start the rest of the GTG's and the GTM's via bleed air.
I wonder if the marketing folks from SkySails are visiting every Navy Yard they can.
"The towing kite is the heart of the SkySails propulsion system. Steered by the control pod, the towing kite performs regular dynamic flight maneuvers in the air in front of the ship to generate tractive force."
"The towing kite is the heart of the SkySails propulsion system. Steered by the control pod, the towing kite performs regular dynamic flight maneuvers in the air in front of the ship to generate tractive force."
Our HP air usually comes from an APU. Is there similar for a DDG or can you get HP air via a tether from a tug?
Thats a really good question and I dont know. There is a connection for LP shore air amidships but there could be a HP shore air connection there as well. Ill check tomorrow when I go back to work. Im thankful to only have gone dark next to the pier and not out to sea.
Guess the Crew Chief Appreciation method of charging the accumulator manually via the H2P / AW3 doesn't apply.
I'm just imagining some poor undesignated seaman trying to charge the worlds largest accumulator with a broomstick handle. It only takes 300,000 strokes to move the needle. Good luck!
Not fun for sure. USS Tripoli LPH-10 went dark for a couple days in the middle of a typhoon in South China Sea during our WESTPAC in the 80's. I spent a lot of that time on deck, gunners belt looped on a rail, or inside a -46, better to be wet than the smells in the passageways.
I had forgotten this but on the flight deck there is a connection where we can use bleed air from a helo to start a GTG. Its not something required for MOB-A or MOB-E so it's not something ever done.
So the question remains, how do you go from cold steel to start? What's the original source of HP air to start?
On Flight I and II's HPAC's keep the air flasks charged. Air flasks provide the start air required. On Flight IIA's and III's the HPAC system was deleted and each generator has RIMMS. They are essentially a very small turbine that provides start air. But even those have so many starts until the batteries are depleted if you are DIW and cold iron.