An airplane usually has two engines. Can an engine fly if it breaks down?

The engine is broken? Most people think this is definitely a deadly rhythm after listening to it. Engine, aren't these the two long legs of an airplane? If one is broken, how can this one be repaired? Jump?

what can I say? It is understandable that ordinary people think so. If you can think of it, then as an aircraft designer, they can certainly think of it.

After all, what happened to this plane, especially the passenger plane, was not a problem of one or two people, but a problem of a bunch of people.

So if your plane hits a single-engine plane, basically forget it. It depends on how much luck God has left us, and it's probably over.

Of course, this single-engine plane is usually a fighter, and it is a light fighter. The twin engines belong to heavy fighter, while civil aviation has at least two engines, and it may be four.

So, a fighter is just an engine. If something goes wrong, it will be shut down. Most of the time, we'll end up playing an ejection. If the plane doesn't fly, it won't be saved.

As for multiple engines, once there is a problem with one engine flameout, there is still a high probability that one engine will drive back alone.

Designers are well prepared for this problem.

Just to be clear. Let's just say that there are only two problems with the aircraft engine, one is in the sky and the other is in the process of taking off on land.

Let's be clear, the engine problem happened when the plane took off on land, and you will understand it in the sky.

First of all, everyone understands one thing. If the plane wants to fly, it must have enough speed. If you can't reach this speed, it is a bus with wings and can't fly at all.

So in this take-off process, this speed is increasing, so we divide this increased speed into two stages.

Why is it divided into two stages?

Because when the speed of the plane reaches A or even exceeds A, don't think about it. The plane can't stop. It's too fast and the runway is too short. It's not enough to support you to stop the plane, brake hard, run off the runway and hit something. This is definitely a disastrous result.

Then when the speed of our plane does not reach the area of A, the pilot will look at the dashboard from time to time, which will show whether there is something wrong with the engine. Once something goes wrong, then at this stage, the brakes will be fine.

When your speed has exceeded a, even if you find that the engine has stopped working, forget it, buddy, resign yourself to take off, try to reach the take-off speed b and let our plane fly!

How about flying up? Turn around. Is it falling? Yes, let's empty the fuel tank and land at another airport nearby.

20 16, when Boeing 777 took off, the engine caught fire. They chose to take off and then make a transition to land.

Then the problem is coming, the engine has problems, and he dares to make a transition?

This is actually a backup plan that existed at the beginning of aircraft design.

There is an auxiliary power device behind the butt of a civil aviation plane. Most people call him APU, which is actually a generator and an engine. This thing is generally not used, and it will provide some power support to the engine room after activation.

Once the first engine stops working, the system will start, so that the remaining engines can work with peace of mind and don't worry about anything else.

Then the rest of the engine and this system cooperate with each other to complete the flight for a certain period of time.

This is a necessary condition for all aircraft to be sold. For example, an airplane like 737 must keep an hour's flight time, while an airplane like 777 needs two hours' flight time, and some can reach three hours.

So there is such a long time margin, enough for the plane to find a suitable place to land.

For this question, because the pictures provided by the questioner are all civil aircraft, it is necessary to focus on the sudden failure of an engine of a civil aircraft, which is often said in civil aviation engineering that the single engine takes effect. Eagle Airlines answers from the following points:

First, most mainstream passenger airliners, whether with two engines, three engines or four engines, generally have an auxiliary power unit at the tail, which is also commonly known as APU. APU is equivalent to a small engine+generator. When the ground main engine is not working, APU is started to provide lighting, air conditioning and avionics power for the engine room. Air flight is generally closed, but it can be started at any time to restore power supply to the cabin.

Second, the civil aircraft is single-engine flameout, so it is impossible to continue normal flight with the remaining engines. crash landing is needed for safety. However, with the help of the power provided by other engines and APU, the feasibility of landing is quite great in most flight States. In civil aviation engineering, this ability is specifically expressed by a parameter, which is ETOPS, that is, the maximum safe flight time in the case of single engine failure. At present, many twin-engine narrow-body passenger planes, such as 737/320, have 60-minute ETOPS capability and can be reserved for landing at nearby airports. Some dual-channel wide-body twin-engine passenger planes, such as 777/787/350, have an ETOPS capacity of 120 minutes, and even some models have reached 180 minutes, which is quite powerful. This is equivalent to cruising altitude of about 1000 meters, and the flight time to the nearest airport is close to 3 hours, which is technically safe enough.

Thirdly, when a civil aircraft has a single engine failure on the ground, it should suspend taking off, especially after taxiing. If the speed does not reach the decision-making speed (the decision-making speed of Boeing 737 is correct, it should be around 150km/h), the pilot needs to brake immediately, because the remaining length of the runway allows the aircraft to slow down and stop. However, if the speed exceeds V 1 (V 1 of Boeing 737 is at 220km/h), it will be embarrassing, and the brakes will inevitably run off the runway; If you lift your head forcibly, you may fall down again because you don't lift it enough.

What about this question? Let's stop here.

If you want to know more about military and aviation, please pay attention to Eagle Airlines. Eagle Airlines insists on original answers and does not plagiarize any words; Some of the pictures quoted in the answer come from the internet, if there is any intrusion or deletion. Please don't copy others, you will report it if you find it. First of all, according to the regulations of the International Civil Aviation Administration, in order to ensure the flight safety of civil airliners with more than two engines. When one engine of a passenger plane breaks down, it is required that the passenger plane can be prepared to descend to the nearest airport within the specified time, while the remaining engines are still working. For example, "180-minute ETOPS" means that the time required for a passenger plane to fly to an alternate airport cannot exceed 180 minutes in the case of single engine failure. In the history of civil aviation, there are cases of single engine failure and double engine failure.

Single engine failure case: Qantas Flight 32 accident. The flight took off from London, England and flew to Sydney, Australia after stopping in Singapore. The passenger plane involved in the accident was an Airbus A380, four-engine wide-body passenger plane. On the morning of June 4th, 2065438+010, when the passenger plane was flying over Batam Island in Riau Islands province, Indonesia, the No.2 engine suddenly exploded. With the full cooperation of the crew, the passenger plane finally returned and landed at Singapore Changi Airport. There were no casualties in this accident. According to the investigation by the Australian Transportation Safety Administration, the cause of the accident was the design defect of the oil pipeline in the engine, which led to fuel leakage and engine fire and explosion.

Double fault case: Air Canada 143 flight. The flight flew from Ottawa to Edmonton, and the aircraft model was Boeing 767, which was a twin-engine wide-body passenger plane. 1 July 23, 983, when the passenger plane was halfway through the voyage, an oil pressure alarm appeared, and then1and No.2 engines were turned off one after another, and the passenger plane lost power in the air. Fortunately, the passenger plane finally landed safely at an abandoned military airport in Canada, breaking the world record of the longest gliding flight of a civil airliner at that time. After investigation, the cause of the accident was that the crew and ground crew miscalculated the fuel consumption, resulting in the actual fuel consumption of the passenger plane being less than half of the normal fuel consumption.

With the continuous progress of China's space technology in recent years, the reliability of the engine used in the aircraft is relatively high, which is equivalent to the heart of the aircraft. The power and kinetic energy of the whole plane depend on the supply of the engine. If it is an airplane with two engines, and one of the engines dies, then the airplane can completely rely on the other engine to continue flying.

As for those large commercial aircraft that fly across the ocean for a long distance, civil aviation companies stipulate that these aircraft must have the function of ETOPS. This function means that if an airplane has only 200 minutes of ETOPS qualification. Then if one engine of this aircraft breaks down during the voyage, its other engine must be fully capable of supporting the aircraft's 200-minute voyage and arrive at the alternate airport within this 200 minutes.

This ETOPS qualification is mainly applicable to those flights that fly across the ocean, because there are fewer alternative airports for this voyage. Without the function of ETOPS, the plane can only choose the route close to the coastline, which can ensure the safety of the plane.

Therefore, the higher the qualification of ETOPS, it means that airlines can draw up more routes, which can be boldly designed to fly in a straight line, so that aircraft equipped with two engines can perform navigation tasks. But in fact, at present, many twin-engine aircraft can only obtain 1.80 minutes ETOPS operating license. If necessary, zigzag routes need to be used to ensure that the airport can use passenger planes at any time.

However, the aircraft with the strongest ETOPS capability can not only fly 180 minutes. Its flight time has been as long as 370 minutes, which means that the plane can fly continuously for more than six hours with only one engine, which means that the one-way flight distance of the plane has reached 4360 kilometers.

It is not uncommon that the problem mentioned by the subject is called engine failure during takeoff (EFTO).

Single-engine aircraft have a high probability of serious accidents, while multi-engine aircraft generally do not have accidents.

The most common EFTO is caused by inhaling foreign objects, including birds, people, stones and iron pieces.

In fact, the pilot will know the answer to the question before taking off.

For example, the flight instrument of Boeing -747

There is such a take-off parameter page when the pilot checks before taking off. Before taking off, the airline will check the information displayed on this page. The contents of EFTO are V 1 and V2.

V, speed.

There will be obvious differences in the speed of an airplane from takeoff to landing. It's simply called V-speed.

Where V 1 is called non-terminal speed, that is, the takeoff process cannot be terminated when the aircraft speed exceeds V 1.

V2 is called the minimum safe take-off speed, which simply means that the plane can take off when taxiing at a speed above V2. Even if an engine does not work, there is no take-off problem.

The screen display data of Boeing 747 in the above picture is used to illustrate:

Boeing 747 must take off after the ground taxiing speed reaches V 1 speed162 km/h. The plane will leave the ground at the speed of VR167 km/h. If engine failure is found after reaching the speed of V 1, it will continue to speed up taxiing and taxi to the ground speed of V2, that is, 172 km/h for takeoff.

If EFTO appears at the speed of V 1, that is, at the taxi speed of 162km/h, all engines can be forced to stop braking. The plane will stop safely on the runway.

20 16 A Boeing 777 of United Airlines caught fire on takeoff at JFK, but it still chose to take off. After taking off, the plane landed in New Jersey.

Don't say that one engine is broken. Even if both engines fail, the plane can still land safely by gliding. In 200 1 year, an Airbus A330 of Canada Transocean Company leaked oil while cruising, and the two engines of the aircraft stopped running because of lack of fuel. The plane became a veritable super glider in the air, and the captain was forced to control the plane to glide 150 km, and finally landed in the Azores Islands in the Atlantic Ocean. No one was injured in the incident. In addition, there is a famous case that happened in 2009. The plane hit a bird during take-off, causing both engines to fail. Finally, the captain was forced to land the plane on the Hudson River, and all the people on board survived.

Of course, in the history of aviation, there are only a handful of things in which all aircraft engines fail in the air. You know, the reliability of contemporary passenger aircraft engines is extremely high, almost close to 100%. One engine failure accident in a person's life is a very small probability event, not to mention the two engine failures mentioned above. Moreover, aircraft manufacturers have considered single engine failure when designing aircraft, leaving enough safety margin for aircraft. The new twin-engine aircraft must be certified by ETOPS before it is put into the market, so as to ensure that the aircraft can fly to the nearby alternate airport and land with only one engine in case of single engine failure. The vast majority of twin-engine aircraft have a single-engine flight extension capacity of 1.80 minutes, and the ETOPS capacity of Airbus A350XWB passenger aircraft has reached an astonishing 370 minutes, that is, in the case of one engine failure, it can persist in flying for more than six hours by relying on another engine A350.

Today's planes are not like those of World War II. Both military aircraft and civilian passenger aircraft have been equipped with a large number of very complex aviation systems to cooperate. Therefore, in addition to its heart "aero-engine", a large number of aero-correction systems are also the main factors that can make an airplane really fly now.

Take the third generation fighters of the United States and Russia as an example. From the appearance, does the Russian Su -27 fighter meet the streamlined design in the air? And look at the American F 15, no matter how big it is. From the appearance, the chubby body is not suitable for aerodynamics at all. In my opinion, this shape of fighter has no air maneuverability at all. But this is not the case. The shape of the F 15 fighter is not streamlined, but it is helpless that it is equipped with two large thrust engines and supplemented by various avionics systems, which also makes the maneuverability of the F 15 fighter in the air not inferior to that of the Su -27.

Closer to home, you might think, if an airplane is equipped with two engines, if one of the engines is damaged and stops running in the air, will it cause the thrust on both sides of the airplane to lose balance, thus making the airplane lose its flying ability and even crash? In the final analysis, there is such a danger, but the first thing that a twin-engine plane should do is to trim the plane with one engine stopped, mainly to avoid the thrust deflection of the whole plane because one engine stopped, otherwise the plane will have an attitude of being unable to fly horizontally.

The loss of an engine in a twin-engine plane simply makes the whole plane less thrust and electricity. That is to say, as long as the aircraft can maintain enough flight thrust and enough power to supply various avionics systems on the aircraft, then the aircraft can finally land successfully. However, in the case of losing an engine, it is best for the aircraft to descend to the airspace below 3 kilometers, and greatly reduce the flight movements of the whole aircraft, and it is best to maintain a horizontal flight attitude. Of course, in the forced landing process, it is best for the aircraft to have enough energy to support the landing gear to be lowered, otherwise it will cause the whole aircraft to rub against the runway during the forced landing process, which may eventually lead to the explosion or destruction of the aircraft.

At present, a large number of passenger planes or large bombers are usually equipped with two or more engines. At this time, if only one engine is damaged, then don't worry. For example, the B52 strategic bomber in the United States is equipped with a powerful engine on the bar. In many flight training, even the pilots of B52 strategic bomber will take the initiative to turn off two engines for flight. These flight training tasks are mainly to simulate whether the B52 strategic bomber or pilot can continue to fly normally when an engine is destroyed in wartime. Of course, it is not excluded to turn off two engines to save fuel consumption when cruising at high altitude.

Of course, I don't know if you have noticed that there is an engine-like nozzle at the tail of a general civil airliner, which is the "APU" auxiliary power device carried by the aircraft. The "APU" device carried by an airplane is basically a combination of a small engine and a generator. If the main engine stops, the "APU" device will be started at this time to provide the missing power supply for the whole machine to supplement the thrust loss caused by the main engine stop.

Forget about multiple planes. Even a single-engine fighter with only one engine may theoretically land on the airport runway if the engine stops near the airport. Of course, without engine thrust, the whole plane will have no power supply. At this time, we can only rely on the pilot as artificial avionics and rely on the inertia of the aircraft to land on the airport runway. Of course, when the engine of a single-engine fighter is turned off, it is more likely that the plane will crash on the airport runway when it wants to land. Whether the pilot and the whole plane can survive depends on God's will.

Speaking of which, when the engine stopped, the plane made a forced landing. Let's talk about whether it is possible for a twin-engine plane to take off when a single engine can't work.

If it is a twin-engine passenger plane, for the sake of safety, the passenger plane will never continue to take off when a single engine fails. Why did I say for safety? In other words, if you take off forcibly at this time, there is even a 99.9% chance that the plane will crash.

Because if the plane loses control at a certain moment because an engine stops working at high altitude, the plane still has more time for the pilot to adjust and regain control of the plane. However, there is no room for carelessness in the take-off stage, if the twin-engine plane chooses to continue to take off forcibly when it loses an engine. Then once the plane has just left the ground, it may make a hard landing in less than a second because of the lack of thrust, and the pilot has no time to do the next remedial work. Even fighter pilots with catapult parachuting dare not play this game.

If the twin-engine aircraft has started taxiing and is ready to take off, if it stops due to engine failure at this time, if the aircraft taxiing has not reached the speed required for takeoff, if the aircraft chooses to brake at this time, it can safely slow down until it stops taxiing.

However, if the taxiing of the plane has reached the high speed required for takeoff, then it is useless to brake the plane at this time, and the plane will inevitably run off the runway because of high speed. If you choose to take off forcibly, it is likely that the whole plane will crash because of insufficient engine thrust.

"Military equipment battle position"

Double-engine civil airliners must have single-engine flight capability! This is a necessary condition for civil aviation passenger aircraft to put into market operation. All airworthiness standards are stipulated.

Military aircraft generally have this capability, but the requirements are lower than those of civil airliners. Because fighters have ejection seats.

Aircraft engine failure is a major event. The day before yesterday, the engine of a Boeing 737-700 passenger plane of Southwest Airlines exploded during the flight, and debris penetrated the fuselage, causing decompression in the cabin and almost sucking a passenger out of the plane. Fortunately, it was held by other passengers on the plane. Fortunately, the captain on duty was not afraid of danger and quickly took measures to make an emergency landing. Finally, the plane landed safely, but one passenger was still injured and died. It can be seen that during the flight, engine failure is a very critical situation and needs urgent treatment.

Some small planes, or some fighters, use a single engine. At this time, if the engine is broken, if there is no destructive damage, such as destroying the fuselage structure, it is still possible to glide down and land on the flat ground or water. However, the risk factor is still very high. Very flat ground, it is difficult to decorate in reality. A little bump on the ground will cause the forced landing plane to rupture, roll and explode, which is easy to cause danger. If the engine explodes in flight, it is easy to destroy the shape of the plane and cause tragedies such as disintegration.

The relative safety factor of multi-engine aircraft is relatively high, and the best solution to the single engine failure of dual-engine civil aviation passenger aircraft after reaching the take-off speed at take-off is to continue taking off, which shows that this situation has been considered in the design of dual-engine passenger aircraft. The probability of multiple aircraft failures is very, very low. Single engine failures are not uncommon in aviation history. Last June, 10, the engine of an Air France A380 exploded on the way from Paris to Los Angeles, including the disintegration of the inlet, fan and front end, and the plane made an emergency standby at the Canadian town of Goodspeed Airport. Fortunately, the explosion of the engine did not cause damage to the fuselage, and there were no casualties.

If there are many failures, it will be very scary and it will definitely be impossible to continue flying. The most famous accidents of this kind are "The Miracle of the Hudson River" and the film Captain Sally based on this real event. It is about the emergency landing of American Airlines flight 5438+ 10/549 on June 5, 2009. Shortly after the plane took off, both engines of A320 passenger plane lost power due to the impact of birds. Due to captain Salinberg's witty control, it was forced to land on the Hudson River, avoiding casualties. After simulation, it is proved that it is not easy to handle the accident so perfectly.

All of the above are cases where the engine is damaged but there is no harm to the body, so there is still the possibility of saving the plane. Strictly trained pilots can avoid or reduce the loss of life as much as possible according to emergency procedures. If the engine explodes and damages the car body, there is nothing we can do.

Since the Wright brothers invented the airplane, which made mankind realize the dream of flying in the sky like a bird, the aviation industry has become an important part of the world industrial system in the past 100 years. Many people know that aircraft generally have two engines (only ordinary civil aviation aircraft are discussed here, and helicopters and fighters are not included in the discussion). Then, if one engine breaks down during the flight, can the plane fly with only one engine? Before answering, let me tell you a short story that happened a few years ago.

On June 5, 2009, 65438+1October 65438, American Airlines 1549 took off from la guardia airport, new york at 3: 26 pm. But about a minute after take-off, captain Sully Sullenberger reported to the airport tower that both engines on the plane had hit the bird, lost power and demanded to return to the airport immediately. The airport immediately instructed 1549 to return to the airport immediately, but the captain found it impossible to turn around and return to the airport, so he prepared to arrange a passenger plane to fly to Teterboro Airport in New Jersey for an emergency landing. However, the captain later discovered that the altitude and descent rate of the plane at that time could not allow the passenger plane to land safely at Teterboro Airport. Therefore, the captain decided to avoid densely populated areas and risk an emergency landing on the Hudson River that runs through new york. All the people on board 155 were rescued and the plane was in good condition.

Seeing this, I believe everyone understands that even the most bulky passenger plane can continue to taxi and land under certain conditions, not to mention a broken engine. I also looked up a lot of information and found that for multi-engine aircraft, safe flight with one engine stopped is a basic subject. Take large civil aviation aircraft as an example. Most of the twin-engine aircraft have ETOPS certification, and many of them have reached 180 minutes, 200+ minutes or even 300+ minutes. This means that the plane must be able to fly safely for such a long time with only one engine left. But there is a premise that engine failure only causes the engine itself to stop running, and will not bring other combined failures. It is often unlucky when some serious faults cause the engine to catch fire, explode and leave the body. Therefore, when discussing the problem of aircraft engine failure, we must not look at the problem in isolation, but must look at it as a whole to predict and analyze it.

Finally, I will give you some unpopular knowledge. In the mouth of aviation professionals, it is called releasing mice, which means that when the engine is not working, two small spirals extend from the fuselage and use the descending speed of the aircraft to generate wind power for emergency landing. Well, are you bolder by flying? In fact, the development of aviation technology is becoming more and more mature, and scientists have long thought of the problems that ordinary people consider, don't you think so?