Airplane Question?

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Lear_Pilot

Being a jet pilot, I hope to be able to provide you with a somewhat accurate and informative answer.

First off, it depends on the type of plane. Let's deal with the bad news first; If you're flying in a light twin engine propeller aircraft, without a turbo-booster for the engines, you will, most of the time, be able to maintain your altitude and make it to a suitable place of landing. The exception to this is if it's hot and/or you're flying in mountanous terrain. Because engine performance decreases with an increase in temperature and altitude, on a hot day in Colorado, the best you can hope for in a light twin engine airplane like this is to get a glide to some point of landing. (A glide that would be a lot longer than if you had no engines though.)

Now the good news; On all turbine powered (Turbo-prop, jet engine) airplanes, the loss of an engine is (almost) a non event. First off, there will be some performance issues. The plane will generally have to fly at a lower altitude (Though still high enough, by far, to maintain safety), and range will be affected somewhat. But even so, there will be no problem flying to an airport and land there. If you're over dry land, there will almost always be an airport within easy reach (Esp. if you're flying over industrialized countries), and even when flying over water you will, in the vast majority of cases, be able to reach an airport. For instance, if a 747 was to lose an engine crossing the pacific from Los Angeles to Sydney, a 14.5 hour trip, even if it would not be able to reach it's final destination it would still be able to find an airport within reach. (Hawaii for instance). Speaking of the 747, it could do that even if it lost /3/ out of it's 4 engines.

Also take in to consideration that pilots spend a large part of their training on these exact scenarios. I have long since lost count on the number of times we have landed airplanes with one engine inoperative in training missions, even in the worst of weather, so from that perspective it's also almost a non-event.

Now, even if an airplane was to lose /all/ it's engines it does not spell automatic doom. It's a commonly held misconception that an airplane will fall out of the sky without engine power, but this couldn't be further from the truth. All airplanes glide fairly well with no engine power. Granted the glide range might not be the best, and the airplane might not be able to make it to an airport, but as long as the airplane can find a field or a road or an otherwise flat surface to land on, a landing without engine power is perfectly feasable.

Airplanes designed for long overwater flights used to be designed with more than 2 engines (4 for the 747 and 3 for the LD1011, for instance), but you will see that newer designs will do the same long trips while being designed with only 2 engines. This because turbine engines are so reliable these days that it's literally unheard of for one, much less two or more, to quit with no warning.

I don't know the reason why you asked this question, if it was because you're afraid of flying or to get exact numbers. If it's the former I just want to say that crashing because of an engine loss should be one of the very least of your worries when it comes to flying. If it's the latter, I can only answer that it depends on the type of airplane in question, but it will be close to the same range as it would have with both engines. (Again, depending on type, but I would estimate an average of 75% of it's normal max range.)

al b

It depends how many engines it had to start with, how high it was, how heavy it is, but the one engine will keep you up until you hit the ground

soccerknocker199

for a pretty good while but if they couldnt make it to the airport they would just land in a clear space

Nicole Z

I don't even think about things like that otherwise I would probably never fly. If thats all you can think about, stay at home.

Look on the bright side.

Aircraft are designed to be able to fly on one engine in the unlikely event that the other engine(s) fail. Obviously the pilot would look for the nearest airport to land safely.

Mexico Traveler

That is a really good question. However there are many answers to that question based upon the type of airplane.

If you are talking about a twin engine prop plane, or a two engine, three engine, or four engine jet liner.

It has been at least five years since I read this sort of information, but as I recall, the airplanes are engineered to keep flying even with one engine. Although that creates a more work for the pilots it can been done.

I recall reading that a twin engine prop removed one propeller, placed it inside the cabin and flew its maximum distance to prove it could be done.

Jetliners like Boeing and Airbus both design their planes to fly with only one engine so that if they do loose the other engine it will be able to complete the journey.

Why don't you do a google search and check.

sfb_wolfpack_girl

It can fly as far as it will go before landing or crashing.

Josh

Well not very far.

If it only has one engine left, and its on one side of the plane, it will go into a dive and probably crash within a minute or two, depending on how high up the plane is.

If its a larger plane, and it had two engines on either side, and it lost 1 engine on 1 side, you have nothing to worry about. A 4 engine plane with 2 or 3 engines working can still fly to its destination. But just abit lower altitude then normal.

But planes are the safest form of transport in the world, so you have nothing to worry about!

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