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Awe man, I'll really miss the 747 as I grew up overseas so flying these 6-8x a year was a joy. I remember being a little kid and getting to go up the stairs to
by ChrisBland 9y ago
Awe man, I'll really miss the 747 as I grew up overseas so flying these 6-8x a year was a joy. I remember being a little kid and getting to go up the stairs to the top level to see the cockpit and being in awe of the size. It helped spur my interest in aviation. For those wondering, one of the bigger changes in aviation which hurt the 747 and put the nail in the coffin was the change to ETOPS rules. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ETOPS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ETOPS) -- now that you can do the US -> Europe/Asia and other routes in a twin engine vs the four of a 747, it has become so much cheaper to operate anything but a 747.
- kakarot 9y agoI don't know much about commercial planes and I've never flown commercial so forgive my ignorance, but I assume that the 4 engines of the 747 allow for redundancy in case of engine failure in long overseas flights? And is there any sort of redundancy in 2 engine jets and if so, to what degree?
- ChrisBland 9y agoETOPS is the min distance / flying time you can be away from a suitable airport with only one engine operational. In the past you couldn't take a two engine jet over the ocean or had to fly a far north arc to ensure you were close enough to land. The 747 had increased etops as it had four engines so losing thrust in one or more was not as big of a deal. Now that we have years of data related to twin engine performance we now have etops 180 which allows us to take twins across the Atlantic. I write this sitting on a 777 heading to Europe flying a route that 40 years ago wouldn't have been allowed.
- kakarot 9y agoThanks for your answer. I didn't know single-engine operation in a 2-engine jet was even a possibility. Planes are so crazy.