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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.
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