Permanent gearbox fix for A400M delayed till next year

Europrop International (EPI) has admitted that it is unable to roll out a permanent solution to the gearbox issue on its TP400-D6 engine by this year.

TP400-D6
I, Mirgolth [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC BY-SA 2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Certification of a new “Pack 2” series modifications with the European Aviation Safety Agency will have to start early next year instead of third quarter of 2017.

Good news is the “truncated plug solution” has proven to be successful as an interim fix.