G-VATL

A real 'techie' question for the VA guru's out there ... Why has A340-600 G-VATL got a single white engine cowling on engine #4?

It's been like that for many, many months; I thought that they would try to repaint it.

I too have wondered this...

VS.

[Nottingham Nick]

I have no idea how long it has been like it, but this incident, which is nearly two years ago caused a divert to Amsterdam, where the engines were taken apart.

Could it have happened then?

Nick

[Scrooge]

We would need one of the airline staff to answer that question, my guess being a pretty new aircraft it hasn't had to come in for a major MX check yet and the way VS run the aircraft pretty thin there simply has not been time to switch the cowling's out.

The incident refered to had nothing to do with the engines. The cowl will have at some point recently been chaged, there may have been a fault with it or it may have been damaged by something etc etc. If the only cowl available was not already painted in VS colours, they will have to put up with it as it is. Most airlines 'pool' certain spares with each other, so this cowl may have come from that stock, so a standard colour is the easiest option. If VS actually own the cowl it may get painted if there is the opertunity, or it may be replaced at a later stage with a VS item.

[Scrooge]

Not wanting to hijack the thread, but does anyone know if VS owns or lease's their engines?

Perhaps only a "loan" item, hence it stays white. As for the engines, all leased along with the APU's.

There's a mixture of owned and leased engines.

I'd be interested to see some facts on that comment, even the aircraft that are owned are not actually owned by Virgin Atlantic. If they do own any engines i bet it's only a couple (of scabby CFM56's).