In late breaking news yesterday, engineering officials at Airbus revealed that the new A380 jet engines delivered by Rolls-Royce, were in fact based cooling fan designs from four cylinder automobile engines made by Hyundai Corporation.
"It was a cost savings measure", says German chief designer, Hans Inkuffs. "Good engineers will borrow working ideas from each other all the time. Rolls-Royce makes fine engines, Hyundai makes fantastic cooling fans, why not combine these ideas rather than start from scratch?"
And the early testing proved quite successful, based on all eye witness accounts and formal test reports. But the test of time and extreme temperature conditions may ultimately be to blame.
"We never considered that plastic fan blades might have trouble in constant colder temperatures like up at 40,000 feet", says Inkuffs. "And we should have probably avoided the cheaper bearings and engine sensors too, but we all are trying to save a Euro wherever we can".
Complex engine sensors which typically monitor more than 30 critical performance metrics on each jet engine were also replaced with another piece of Hyundai technology. "Yes, we removed all those individual sensors and warning lights and replaced them with something simpler and more cost effective. The A380 now has one simple red light that reads; Check Engine Now".
