Contractor finds extensive damage to NASA Learjet engine during inspection

During routine inspections of an engine from a NASA Learjet 25 aircraft, a vendor for the space agency found extensive damage within the compressor section of the power system.

The damage was discovered when the engine was sent to U S. Turbine & Accessory LLC in Taylor, Mich. The engine, a GE CJ610-6, was shipped to U.S. Turbine for a scheduled five-year corrosion inspection.

“It will be more cost effective to have U S Turbine & Accessory LLC complete these repairs since the engine is already disassembled,” NASA said in contract documents released through the Federal Business Opportunitieswebsite on Thursday. “Further damage would incur if we were to reassemble everything and ship to anyone else.”

The Learjet 25 is used at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio.