Aerospace Notebook: Flight around world just a tuneup

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER ^ | Wednesday, August 10, 2005 | By JAMES WALLACE

[Paleo Conservative]

Looking at the picture of that airplane, it appears there's plenty of room forward and aft of the wing box for bomb/missile bays.

Considering the center of gravity of the plane is over the wings, putting the bombs fore and aft of the wings would cause problems with abrupt changes of center of gravity when bombs are released.

[RightWhale]

engines dwarfs those people by them

More compression, hotter flame, greater efficiency. Who makes these engines?

[Paleo Conservative]

More compression, hotter flame, greater efficiency. Who makes these engines?

More stages yield higher thermodynamic efficiency in extracting energy from burning fuel. Bigger fans mean lower rotational speed for a given amount of thrust. This allows for quieter operation.

[RightWhale]

Who makes the engines? Or are they available from just about any company these days?

[Paleo Conservative]

GE has a monopoly on the engines for the high gross weigh versions of the 777 which are the 777-300ER and the 777-200LR. Only Rolls Royce was willing to develop engines for these models on a nonexclusive basis. The 115,000 pound version is for the 777-300ER, and the 110,000 pound version is for the 777-200LR. Supposedly Emirates will get the 115,000 pound version for their 777-200LR's, because of their need for hot weather takeoff performance at Dubai. They are rumored to want a 125,000 - 130,000 version for the 777-300ER.

Engine Overview

The GE90 represents GE's investment in the future of wide-body aircraft. Over the past two decades, GE's CF6 and CFM56* engines have been chosen to power more than 50 percent of all new aircraft ordered with a capacity of 100 passengers or more.

The GE90 combines the best proven technology from these engine programs, NASA and military programs with advanced technology to provide a highly reliable, fuel-efficient powerplant for the next generation of wide-body aircraft.

Originally certified in 1985 at 84,700 pounds of thrust, today's GE90 engines power newer, more advanced Boeing 777 aircraft capable of flying farther, faster and more efficiently than their predecessors.

The most recent derivative of the GE90, the GE90-115B, is the sole powerplant for Boeing's longer-range 777-300ER and 777-200LR aircraft. The GE90-115B certified at 115,000 lbs. of thrust and has broken a number of aviation records.

The Guinness Book of World Records recognized the engine as the "World's Most Powerful Commercial Jet Engine" in 2001 after it recorded an amazing 123,000 lbs. of steady-state thrust while undergoing initial ground testing. In late 2002, the engine shattered its original record by reaching 127,900 lbs. of thrust during required certification testing.

Since the introduction of Boeing's longer-range 777 in early 2000, the GE90 has been the best-selling engine for that aircraft family.

Snecma of France, Avio of Italy, and IHI of Japan are participants in the GE90 development program.

*CFM56 engines are produced by CFM International, a 50/50 joint company between Snecma Moteurs and General Electric Company.

[RightWhale]

Thanks. I was thinking it was GE.

[Yo-Yo]

No, it would NOT make one helluva bomber.

First of all, the fuselage is not designed to have the bottom open up. Most of the strenght of the fuselage is due to the stressed outer skin much the same way that a sealed 2 liter Coke bottle has strenght. Squeeze the sides of a 2 liter bottle and you will find you can hardly dimple it. If you want the belly to open up then you have to really beef up the interior ribs and stringers. Remove the cap from a 2 liter bottle then squeeze the sides and you will see what I mean. There have been 747s that have broken apart and crashed when their cargo doors were not closed properly and blew open in flight.

Second, for the bomb load you would have to remove the cabin floor, which in a passenger liner is basically the backbone of the aircraft. Removing the floor would require beefing up the ribs and stringers even more.

Third, the aircraft does not have self sealing tanks, attack and navigation radars, electronic and physical countermeasures, and is not capable of combat evasive maneuvers without ripping itself to pieces, especially if you've modified the fuselage for bombing. Adding all that crap to a 777 would eat up most of your payload capability.

It makes a good long range passenger liner and palletized freight hauler, but a piss poor bomber.

The B-2 can fly a 50,000 lb bomb load for 8,000 miles unrefueled. It is capable of mid-air refueling, and have made US-Afghanistan-US nonstop bombing runs.

Who needs a 777 bomber???

[G-Man 1]

India is going to design the bomb bay and Iran is going to install them.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

They are GE - 90 - 115 B ... largest and most powerful Airliner jet engines in the world.
Here is a link.
http://www.geae.com/engines/commercial/ge90/index.html

[Prophet in the wilderness]

http://www.geae.com/engines/commercial/ge90/world_record_holder.html

[Prophet in the wilderness]

I wonder ? since these engines don't have to rotate as much as other engines, that means, the RPMs are lower, and less wear, and less chances of the engines having a problem with mechanical problems as fragmenting.
All and all, we can say, that these engines are very reliable and dependable.
I once heard a jet engineer ( I think, either on a tech show, or a Boeing video ) say, that the newer generations of jet engines are more reliable, dependable as the older generation jet engines, and that they are almost indestructible, as in having a mechanical frailer while flying .
I heard a GE engineer say, that, really, the engines core is not what give mechanical problems anymore, but, the surrounding parts i.e. hydraulic lines, pumps, coming lose from vibration from the engines.

[timydnuc]

I said this on another thread and I'll say it again; Boeing makes AIRCRAFT they don't make buses!

[No2much3]

Airbus now has the world's longest-range jetliner actually in service with airlines. It is the A340-500. Singapore Airlines is using the Airbus jet on 18-hour non-stop flights between New York and Singapore, as well as long-haul flights between Los Angeles and Singapore....

Please explain the difference between non-stop and long haul. Is long haul referring to a one/two stop without refueling?

Also is this where I would ask to be included in the aerospace/astrophysics ping list?