One engine shuts down: how long can one plane fly using only the other?
For nearly 40 years, long-haul flights, especially those that involved flying over oceans, were the preserve [...]
Japan Airlines
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For nearly 40 years, long-haul flights, especially those that involved flying over oceans, were exclusive preserve of aircraft equipped with four or three motori: before the Lockheed Constellation and of the Douglas DC-6 and DC-7 propeller-driven, then, with the beginning of the jet era, the Comet, of the DC-8, of the Boeing 707, of the Vickers VC-10 and of the Boeing 747 (all equipped with four engines) as well as the DC-10 and of the Lockheed Tristar to three engines. The reason? In case of failure of one engine, there would have been three and two others, respectively, to ensure the safety of the flight.
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Then, in the first half of the 1980s, out of the Everett plant came the Boeing 767. A revolutionary airplane for the time to a similar extent as the Boeing 787 would be, some 30 years later. (Photo Seattle Municipal Archives)
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The 767 had a cockpit with a so-called glass cockpit, that is, with digital screens that took the place of analog controls. And in the -200ER (Extended Range) version. could fly nonstop from one end of the Atlantic Ocean to the other with only two engines.
So advanced was the 767 for its time, that even today. its big brothers, the 767-300ER and -400ER, fly with numerous airlines around the world including the U.S.-based Delta Airlines, American Airlines and United Airlines, Brazil's Latam, and Japan's All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines, Austria's Austrian Airlines, Germany's Condor. (Trainler CC BY 3.0 photo).
The advent of the 767-200ER meant the debut of the Extended Range Twin Engine Operations (better known by the acronym ETOPs), long-range operations with twin-engine aircraft.
For us, today, to fly on a Boeing 777, on a Boeing 787, on an A350 or on an A330, and with that to go over the Atlantic or the Pacific is a normal thing. But, then, was one of the greatest revolutions in the history of commercial aviation: routes that, up to that point, had been operated with four-engine or trimotor aircraft could be operated with an aircraft with only two engines, With huge fuel savings for the airlines.
The first flight of that type was carried out by a Boeing 767-200ER of the American airline TWA on February 1, 1985 along the Boston-Paris route.
Of course, the 767-200ER, With its sparse 200 passengers of capacity in a two-class configuration, was small compared to the 747 or DC-10, which carried up to 400 and nearly 300 passengers, respectively. But the 767-300ER, which appeared a few years later, narrowed the gap somewhat, with its 230 or so passengers. And even better did the -400ER with its 270 seats. (Photo Altair78 - CC BY-SA 4.0)
E The lower operating costs of the 767 allowed companies to increase frequencies on some rottand, meeting the elasticity needs of passengers, and to open others that it was not convenient to serve with airplanes that were too large and very fuel-intensive.
Yeah, but how was it possible for the 767s to fly over the Atlantic (and then with the -300ER and -400ER also over the Pacific) ensuring the same safety requirements as the four-engine and trimotors? Thanks to a new generation of turbofan engines: General Electric CF6s, Pratt & Whitney 4060s and JT9-Ds, and Rolls Royce RB211s, which ensured from the outset. unprecedented reliability. And thanks to innovative certification procedures, which included, among the mandatory tests for aircraft and engine certification, hundreds and hundreds of hours of flight time on routes of up to eight, nine and even ten and more hours, nonstop.
Initially, these ETOPs certifications were granted for 120 minutes, but then (as the engines further evolved) they grew to 180, 240 minutes and beyond. Guaranteeing that if one of the engines failed, the plane would be able to fly safely for 120, 180, 240 minutes or more.
This made it possible to 'design' routes over the oceans reserved for ETOPs, such as to ensure that the aircraft would at all times be within a distance of an airport capable of accommodating it no more than the minute length specified in its ETOPs certification. (Photo by Vladsinger CC BY-SA 4.0).
Two-engine intercontinental jets today have taken over from multi-engine jets: the three-engine DC-10 and its successor MD-11 have survived in a few dozen only in the cargo sector, while the Boeing 747, the Airbus A340 and A380 are now rarities (in the case of the latter making an exception for Emirates' fleet).
Yeah, but when we board a two-engine plane for an intercontinental flight, how long will it be able to fly safely if one of the thrusters fails (and shuts down)?
L'A330 Has been certified to fly with only one operating thruster for 240 minutes, or four hours; i Boeing 777 and the 787 are authorized to do so for 330 minutes, or five and a half hours. But the champion of ETOPs operations is, to date, the Airbus A350, which can only proceed with one engine for 370 minutes and can, in fact, fly over 97% of the earth's surface, except for routes passing directly over the south pole.
As for narrow-aisle aircraft used on intercontinental flights, the'Airbus A321LR is certified to fly safely with one engine for 180 minutes, so the smaller Airbus A220 as all series of the Boeing 737 MAX.
