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Could some knowledgable aircraft people answer these questions for me? 1. Can/are jet engines ever swapped out after a plane as been put into service? Or will
by brwnll 11y ago
Could some knowledgable aircraft people answer these questions for me?
1. Can/are jet engines ever swapped out after a plane as been put into service? Or will these only ever be sold attached to new aircraft orders.
2. Any idea on what the engine costs? And what percentage of the overall airline cost is engine? I didn't see any references to costs of this engine vs existing models.
- vermontdevil 11y agoAlso I believe airlines often lease backup engines while they service the original purchased ones. It's been a while since I was in the business but that's what my old company did. They leased spare engines and aircraft on demand if needed.
- WalterBright 11y agoRe-engining an airframe is a big deal. A lot of engineering has to go into it.
- dexterdog 11y agoWhy can't they just have a standard mount like an LCD panel?
- ChuckMcM 11y agoIt isn't the mount that is at issue, it is stresses on the airframe. Different engines stress the airframe in different ways leading to different failures.
- WalterBright 11y agoConsider that the engines for the Me-262 turned out to be heavier than anticipated, throwing the center of gravity off. The easiest fix was to sweep the wings back, inadvertently discovering the advantages of swept wings for high speed flight.
- Gibbon1 11y agoI upvoted cause not dumb question. Yes they do to an extent. One of the major reasons the engines are mounted on pylons is exactly to make maintenance and replacement easy.
- nether 11y agoYeah, it's a fair question. Most are unused to weight optimization. It's why everything in a commercial jet down to the forks served with meals is purpose designed for aviation.
- nether 11y agoYou actually could. It would take a very strong, very heavy airframe that could handle any stresses generated by the intended selection of engines. It would just be overbuilt and get terribly fuel hungry for most engines, while being optimum for one. This isn't financially acceptable for an industry where operating costs are razor thin (all driven by the fact that a $10 difference in airfare can mean losing a passenger). Aircraft safety margins are 1.5 (built to handle 1.5x the maximum expected load), while bridges are 5+. The latter aren't constrained by weight, so you might as well go to town with a cheap, heavy design. A lower safety margin is only acceptable though when the expected loading is extremely well defined with very low uncertainty. This takes extensive testing (years for an aircraft), basically reducing the sigma by increasing the sample size.
- razster 11y agoYes, they're placed into a duct/shell and can be removed and replaced because the engines have a set number of hours they can run. Also if newer engines are developed they can be swapped (Thanks for /r/justrolledintotheshop) - I recall the cost to replace around $16 million, don't hold me to that though.
- ju-st 11y agoThe engines are generally 50% of the purchase price of an airliner.
- notahacker 11y agoEngines are relatively easily swapped out for maintenance, with most airlines carrying spares, but these engines are highly unlikely to be retrofitted to older generation aircraft; too many engineering and certification issues. The engines will be somewhere north of $10m each, but since replacement of parts at required intervals will also cost several million dollars the airlines will look at total cost of ownership to take into account differences in frequency and cost of replacement parts, probably with a health risk premium for the new technology. Comparing that with existing models is more complex, and of course fuel economy savings depend very much on the routes you intend to operate. The engines alone will be worth more than a typical 10-15 year old narrowbodied aircraft (with its engines, midway through maintenance cycle)