Ask Captain Lim

Thursday, 16 October 2008
Home arrow Air Crash arrow Are the Airbus A380 engines more powerful than those of the Boeing 777?
Thursday, 16 October 2008
Main Menu
Home
Welcome
Ask Me
Forum
Disclaimer
Privacy
Search
Links
OnLine Stores
Pilot Career
Becoming a Pilot
Female Pilots
Education
Medical Examination
Eyesight
Height
Age
Interviewing Process
Aptitude Tests
Flight Simulator
Flying Schools
Training
Technical Questions
Professional Pilot
General
Licenses & Ratings
A320 Training Videos
Salary
Job Opportunities
Flying
Air Travel
Airways
Ditching
Dr JB Lim's Corner
Emergencies
ETOPS
Fear of Flying
Flying on the Boeing 777
Flying the Plane
Medical
Profession
Aviation
Airlines
Airplanes
Airports
Air Crash
Air Crash Investigations .. --(Not for Fearful Flyers!)
Air Safety
Air Security
Humor
B777 Photo/Routes/Seats
Video
Stories, Truths & Myths
Weather
Air Turbulence
Contrails
Crosswinds
Icings
Lightnings
Night Flights
Thunderstorms
Windshears
Custom Search


Are the Airbus A380 engines more powerful than those of the Boeing 777?
 

By Capt Lim, on 24-08-2006

Favoured : None

Published in : Aviation, Airplanes

Hi Captain Lim,

Thanks abundantly! It impresses me ever to see you, not only having advanced into what you desired, but pursuing it further from all corners - such as this remarkable website of yours!

A Question: The Airbus A380 engines are massive and its titanium blades are prominently much broader. Yet they produce a thrust of 70,000 pounds each as compared to the smaller Boeing 777 engines that produce a heftier 92,000 pounds of thrust each.

Please explain.

Thanks and Blessings.

Glen Reuben
USA

Hi Glen,

Yes, the Airbus A380 may be one of the largest passenger aircraft (second only to the Russian Antonov AN225) in the world today, but its engines (four Rolls Royce Trent 900 Turbo fan) are not necessary the most powerful. They may look massive with their titanium turbine blades or *prominently broader* but the record goes to the Boeing 777 engines.

Each RR Trent 900 has been cleared to eventually certify at 81,000 lbs of thrust (more than 75,000 HP). It is currently being run at 76,500 lbs (about 71,000 HP)

The Boeing 777-200 IGW (now also known as the Boeing 777-200ER) that I flew, was fitted with the Trent 892 engines and produce up to 90,300 lbs of thrust each. In fact, the real record for the world*s most powerful engines goes to GE90-115B engines fitted onto the Boeing 777-300ER. Each engine produces up to 115,300 lbs of thrust!

Ah, but remember, the Airbus A380 has 4 engines. So the total thrust is multiplied four times (76,500 x 4 = 306,000 lbs of thrust) as compared to the two engines of the Boeing 777-300ER (115,300 x 2 = 230,600 lbs of thrust). Overall, the Airbus A380 is still more powerful.

The Airbus A380, with the RR Trent 900 engines, will be the first long-haul aircraft to consume less than three liters of fuel per passenger over 100 kilometers (approximately 81 miles per US gallon) ? a fuel consumption comparable to the best of the small modern turbo-diesel cars.

From the Rolls Royce website, here are some more interesting facts: 

. At take-off, the A380*s four Trent 900s will deliver a thrust equivalent equal to the power of more than 3,500 family cars. 
. The engine*s hollow, titanium fan blades suck in over 1.25 tons of air every second and could empty four squash courts per second. 
. The fan operates at nearly 3,000 rpm with tip speeds at 1.5 times the speed of sound. 
. By the time the air leaves the exhaust it has been accelerated to a speed of nearly 1,000 miles per hour. 
. Temperatures in the engine core are half those on the surface of the sun. 
. The blades in the engine*s high-pressure system rotate at 12,500 rpm, with tip speeds reaching 1,200 miles per hour. 
. Each Trent 900 has around 20,000 individual components.

   
Print
Send to friend
Save this to del.icio.us

Users' Comments  
 
 


Add your comment
Name
Title  
Comment
 
Available characters: 600
 
  This image contains a scrambled text, it is using a combination of colors, font size, background, angle in order to disallow computer to automate reading. You will have to reproduce it to post on my homepage
Enter what you see:

   
   

No comment posted



mXcomment 1.0.8 © 2007-2008 - visualclinic.fr
License Creative Commons - Some rights reserved
< Prev   Next >


Latest Comments
What would the Etihad Cadet...
Etihad Cadet Pilot Programme
Hi sam, May I noe how days did...
02/10/08 More...
By spooks

What would the Etihad Cadet...
Request
I have recently applied for the Etihad...
02/10/08 More...
By tazi

What would the Etihad Cadet...
request
Hi sam, I must tell something about...
01/10/08 More...
By Hassan

ETOPS and CRM queries in a...
bad-karma
but wouldn't you get into the Captain's...
30/09/08 More...
By john

Flying Schools
Student
...
30/09/08 More...
By Nicholas

What would the Etihad Cadet...
Waiting period for Etihad
Hi Sam, Similarly I have applied for...
17/09/08 More...
By Mohd

Why a sailor can have tattoo?...
tatoos can be removed
tatoos now can be removed by laser...
31/08/08 More...
By Dev Kamal

Singapore Airlines Pilots...
Fleet size
Hi Captain Lim, Why is the aircraft...
30/08/08 More...
By YAP

Do I qualify to join...
piloting
pls i need ur urgent advise on pilot...
26/08/08 More...
By jibahmd

Singapore Airlines...
SIA cadet pilot programme india
Dear All, Is SIA planning to come to...
21/08/08 More...
By Lloyd

© 2008 Ask Captain Lim
Joomla! is Free Software released under the GNU/GPL License.