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The flight crew's job is to get you to your destination safely. The flight attendants' job is to create and maintain a safe environment and quickly evacuate the aircraft if necessary. Obey all instructions from the crew. It is the law, and it is essential for your safety.

Safety is everyone's responsibility. If you are concerned about a situation that could affect the safety of your flight, report it to a crew member.

Whether you are flying within Canada or abroad, be aware of the safety features of the aircraft, the location and operation of the emergency exits, and evacuation procedures in case of emergency. It may save your life.

On this page

Travelling on Canadian airlines

Safety demonstrations

The information passed on during the mandatory pre-flight briefing is provided for your safety. Every aircraft is different, so it is important to listen for information on:

Seat belts

For your own protection, Transport Canada recommends that you always stay in your seat with your seat belt fastened during your flight, even when the seat belt sign is off. You can leave your seat temporarily when the seat belt sign is off.

Although they are rare, incidents involving air turbulence are the leading cause of injuries to both passengers and crew members. Air turbulence is caused by atmospheric pressure differences, cold or warm fronts, jet streams, mountains or thunderstorms. It can occur without warning and may last just seconds.

Your seat belt must be fastened during takeoff, landing, during turbulence and any time during the flight that crew members think it is necessary.

Aircraft seat belts work differently than those in your car. Make sure you can fasten it, adjust it tightly and release it quickly. Make sure it is fastened securely around your hips and not around your waist. If you need a seat belt extension, please let your airline know before you arrive at the airport.

Safety features card

The safety features card at your seat provides you with safety information about the aircraft on which you are travelling, such as how to operate each exit on the aircraft and how to use the equipment provided for you to use in case of emergency, such as life preservers and oxygen masks. The operation of the exits can differ from one aircraft to another and even from the front to the back of the same aircraft, so it is important to read the card and make sure you are familiar with the safety features before an emergency takes place.

The safety features card also includes instructions on how to adopt the "brace for impact" position, which can significantly increase your chance of survival and lower your risk of injury during an airline emergency.

To brace for impact, you pre-position your body against whatever surface you are most likely to strike during an impact, which will reduce the force of the impact and any resulting injuries.

The best brace for impact position depends on a number of factors, including your size and physical limitations, the interior layout of the aircraft, the type and scale of the emergency, and the direction and sequence of the crash forces.

Oxygen masks

In the event of decompression, an oxygen mask will automatically appear in front of you in most commercial aircraft. To start the flow of oxygen, pull the mask towards you. Place it firmly over your nose and mouth, secure the elastic band behind your head, and breathe normally. Although the bag does not inflate, oxygen is flowing to the mask. If you are travelling with a child or someone who requires assistance, secure your mask first, and then help the other person. Keep your mask on until a crew member advises you to remove it.

Emergency exits

The location of the emergency exits is different from one aircraft to another. Check where your seat is located in relation to the two nearest exits, so that if there is an emergency you will be able to follow the instructions of the crew members and leave the aircraft as quickly as possible.

Exit row seating

If you are sitting in the row next to an emergency exit, you are responsible for opening the exit if there is an accident. Make sure you listen carefully to the safety briefing, study the instructions and ask questions if you don't understand something. If you don't think you can do it, ask to be moved to another seat.

Other information

The pre-flight briefing may also include information on carry-on baggage, smoking, the oxygen system and life preservers.

Emergency evacuations

In the event of an emergency evacuation, every second counts. Always leave all carry-on baggage and personal items behind and follow crew member instructions. Trying to get your carry-on baggage from under the seat or the overhead bin delays the evacuation. This puts you and others at risk.

What to wear on the plane

Dress appropriately for the conditions you may encounter before, during and after your flight.

The clothes you are wearing can play a significant role in your safety. For example, synthetic blend fabrics ignite quickly, shrink, melt and continue to burn even after the heat source is removed.

Natural fibres such as cotton, wool, denim and leather offer the best protection during an evacuation or fire.

Synthetic fibres (rayon, poly/cotton and nylon found in pantyhose, wigs, hairpieces, scarves, ties and underwear) can become very hot, melt and cause severe burns.

Avoid leaving large areas of your body uncovered. Shorts and skirts leave your legs bare.

Non-restrictive clothing allows you greater movement.

Keep your shoes on during the flight.

Wear enclosed low-heeled shoes or boots that have laces or straps.

Flying while in other countries

Domestic airlines in other countries may use poorly maintained planes that do not meet international safety standards. For more information, check:

Child safety

If you are travelling with an infant or a child, make sure that you properly secure the infant or child in an approved child restraint system before you properly fasten your own seat belt. Hold the infant in your arms if you do not have an approved restraining device.

For more information about child safety restraints, see Taking children on a plane.

Enjoy your flight and let others enjoy theirs

Everyone is entitled to travel in a safe and secure environment. It is illegal to behave in a manner that is threatening to crew members and passengers.

The crew members will not tolerate any disruptive behaviour or interference, including:

harassment

physical assault

disregard of smoking regulations

refusing to follow instructions from the crew

verbal abuse

inappropriate sexual behaviour

intoxicated or disorderly conduct

consuming your own alcoholic beverages

endangering the safety of the aircraft

A person may be denied boarding or removed from the aircraft when such behaviour occurs before departure. If it happens after departure, the aircraft may be diverted. The police will be asked to meet the aircraft upon arrival and the person could be arrested, charged and prosecuted.

Alcohol

Alcohol adversely affects the brain, the eyes and the inner ear. It decreases the ability of the brain to make use of oxygen and impairs your reaction time, reasoning, judgment and memory. Any alcohol you consume while in flight will affect you more noticeably than it will at sea level.

Moderation is good policy at any altitude. If you appear to have overindulged in alcohol, you may not be allowed to board your flight.

Safety on the apron

If you must board or deplane the aircraft from the apron, use the safest route and follow the directions of airline staff. Make sure you keep an eye on any children in your care. If the aircraft engines are running, it increases the potential of a propeller or jet blast-related incident.

While you are on the apron, notice where the aircraft's propellers are in relation to its door, especially at night. Look carefully for other aircraft with their engines running. You may not hear them over the noise of the aircraft you are using.

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The flight crew's job is to get you to your destination safely. The flight attendants' job is to create and maintain a safe environment and quickly evacuate the aircraft if necessary. Obey all instructions from the crew. It is the law, and it is essential for your safety. Safety is everyone's responsibility.

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Basically all of the sub -question sources.

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Basically all of the sub -question sources.

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(There is a playlist for a lot of videos on piloting from MIT)

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Benjamin A. Wilgus (Author), Molly Brooks (Illustrator)

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Science Comics: Flying Machines: How the Wright Brothers Soared

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Science Comics: Flying Machines: How the Wright Brothers Soared [Wilgus, Benjamin A., Brooks, Molly] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Science Comics: Flying Machines: How the Wright Brothers Soared

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Benjamin A. Wilgus (Author), Molly Brooks (Illustrator)

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Science Comics: Flying Machines: How the Wright Brothers Soared

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Science Comics: Flying Machines: How the Wright Brothers Soared [Wilgus, Benjamin A., Brooks, Molly] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Science Comics: Flying Machines: How the Wright Brothers Soared

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Description of the transport plane Antonov 255 and its function nowadays.

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Flight: Answers to Questions About Man's Airborne Feats (Know How Know Why)

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Flight: Answers to Questions About Man's Airborne Feats (Know How Know Why)

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Flight: Answers to Questions About Man's Airborne Feats (Know How Know Why)

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The Book: Jet Fighter Planes by: Edge Books

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The Book: Jet Fighter Planes by: Edge Books

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Launching the largest plane in the world.

The record-setting Stratolaunch carrier aircraft first took to the skies on April 13, 2019, staying aloft for 149 minutes, and successfully landing back in Mojave. Since 2012, we've been designing, building, and testing the world's largest composite aircraft for Stratolaunch, a Paul G. Allen company. The goal of this mobile launch system is to make orbital access to space more convenient, reliable, and routine. For high resolution first flight photos, download our media pack. The large aircraft project has been an idea our founder, Burt Rutan, has played with for over 20 years. Various designs have been explored as customer interest came and went. Ultimately, in 2011 Paul Allen agreed to pursue this project. Prior to the final contract, Scaled worked to validate fabrication costs by building demonstration pieces to lower the cost of pounds of material labor to man hour. This factor drove the overarching design of the aircraft - flat-sided fuselages with a mostly straight wing. Learn more about Stratolaunch Systems.

Stratolaunch By The Numbers

Services utilized on Stratolaunch

Thinking about Stratolaunch flying, its 'just another first flight of another type' but at the same time, 'it's a whole different KIND of airplane.'

Grace Wang

Design Engineer

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The record-setting Stratolaunch carrier aircraft first took to the skies on April 13, 2019, staying aloft for 149 minutes, and successfully landing back in Mojave. Since 2012, we've been designing, building, and testing the world's largest composite aircraft for Stratolaunch, a Paul G. Allen company.

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Most plane passengers have looked out the window during a flight and wondered how on earth does this great hulking thing stay up here?

The short answer is engineering magic using differences in air pressure, and Newton's Third Law, to generate enough lift to exceed the force of gravity.

The long answer: When air flows over any flat plate at an angle, like when you hold your hand out of a car window on the highway, air is re-directed down.

According to Newton's Third Law the air pushes back up on your hand and congratulations you have lift! The higher the angle, called the angle of attack, the greater the lift (Coefficient of lift, C l), up to a point of failure called 'stall' but we are talking about how planes stay up so we can ignore that.

You can fly faster (Velocity, V), to generate more lift. And for those who would like to delve deeper into the science ... How much? Exactly this much.

If you did hold your hand out the window, you quickly realise how much the air is also pushing back on your hand, this is called drag.

The trick (and it also helps to have an Aeronautical Engineering Degree), is creating the most lift with the least drag (Lift to Drag ratio), otherwise you would need lots of fuel to get anywhere, which is more weight, which means we need to fly faster, which burns fuel faster...you can start to see the circular nature of this problem.

This is where the curved profile called an airfoil comes in. These profiles are used on all wings and smoothly guides air over its upper and lower surfaces to generate lift.

Lift off: Comparison of flow over a flat plate (top image) and an airfoil (bottom image). As you can see, the blue recirculating flow - which creates drag - is much smaller in the airfoil profile.

As the air close to the surface flows over the top, it accelerates (Venturi Effect) and the pressure drops (Bernoulli Effect). The free stream air above the wing then wants to equalise the pressure near the wing surface so it pushed down on the flow and 'attaches' the flow (Coanda Effect). If the angle gets too high, the pressure is not enough to keep it attached and we get a stalled wing.

An airliner wing can produce around 7 kilopascals of lift in level flight. That's not much (your tyres are inflated to about 220 kilopascals) but it adds up over the entire wing surface. A Boeing 747's wings have a surface area of about 510 square metres and can produce roughly 385 tonnes of lift.

Comparing the advances in the latest 787 with the 747, introduced with Pam American in 1970, the crucial Lift-to-Drag ratio has been improved from 18 to 21, a massive 15% reduction in drag. Coupled with advances in material science and engine performance it's enough to keep the plane in the sky for anything up to 15 hours. Or as in the case of last weekend's historic Qantas flight from New York to Sydney - 19 hours and 16 minutes.

Now if you want to know how helicopters fly, they just beat the air into submission.
Byron Wilson is Program Manager in the School of Engineering in the Faculty of Science and Engineering, Macquarie University.

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Most plane passengers have looked out the window during a flight and wondered how on earth does this great hulking thing stay up here? The short answer is engineering magic using differences in air pressure, and Newton's Third Law, to generate enough lift to exceed the force of gravity.

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Planes! Have you ever watched a plane fly over and wondered how on earth it can soar through the clouds so effortlessly?

I always feel amazed when I see that giant double-decker plane, the incredible A-380. It weighs nearly 600 tonnes - as much as a small ship - and yet it can fly!

A plane's wing is basically an 'air deflector': the wing pushes air down and, in return, the air pushes the wing up. So, the A-380 can stay 12,000m above the Earth because it is constantly pushing
air down. This is called 'lift,' one of the four things a plane needs to fly.

Think of a tiny plane, such as the single-engine, four-seater Cessna 172. It weighs just over a tonne (that's one 600th the size of the A-380!). When it's flying at 220km/h, its wings are pushing about five tonnes of air per second down towards the ground. The A-380 would need to push down a lot more air than that to stay in the sky!

But how does it work? Imagine you're in a swimming pool, and you're moving a table tennis paddle horizontally through the water. Now, if you tilt the paddle upwards a little at the front as you move it along, the paddle tries to rise towards the surface. This is the same effect that the air has on a plane's wing.

On large passenger jets (like the ones you might have travelled in on a holiday), the wings are joined onto the plane's long body at an angle of about 5-10 degrees, tilting upwards at the front. Just like the paddle, this causes the plane to rise up (and stay up) - high in the sky!

The three other elements needed for a plane to fly are weight, thrust and drag. The plane stays balanced in-flight because of how the weight is distributed - you don't want the plane to be nose-heavy or tail-heavy!

Thrust is the force that moves the plane forward. Propellers or jet engines produce the thrust, just like a (smaller!) engine propels a car forward.

Drag slows the plane. You can feel drag when you walk against a strong wind. Planes are designed to let air pass around them with minimal drag, so that they can travel forwards with ease.

A plane flies when all four forces - lift, weight, thrust and drag - work together.

DID YOU KNOW? A plane's ability to fly can be explained through a scientific theory called Newton's Third Law of Motion. This law states that 'for every action, there is an equal, but opposite, reaction'.

DID YOU KNOW? You can earn over $1 million for solving a maths problem! The Clay Mathematics Institute in the USA has seven problems up on their website. One of them deals with how air flows - yep, something that we still don't completely understand!

DID YOU KNOW? In 1640, a physicist by the name of Evangelista Torricelli discovered that air has weight. At sea level, one cubic metre of air weighs about 1.25kg!

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planes and how they fly | science with dr karl | national geographic kids

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Ever watched a plane fly over and wondered how it can soar through the clouds so effortlessly? The A-380 weighs nearly 600 tonnes and yet it can fly!

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An easy-to-understand explanation of how planes fly and stay in the air.

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Longer than the Wright brothers' first flight, wider than a boulevard, and with a tail height as tall as a six-story building, the 747 was a revolution in aviation technology and the passenger experience when it entered service on January 22, 1970. With the first flight from New York to London, Pan Am's Clipper Young America ushered in the jet age's second phase: the era of wide body aircraft.

Developed by Boeing to maximize seat-mile and ton-mile revenues, the aircraft also extended the golden age of air travel as the 1960s came to a close. With increased capacity and lowered costs, the 747 helped make the air travel experience accessible to middle-class travelers. Spacious interiors with luxury appointments and enhanced in-flight dining and entertainment experiences, available to first-class and economy passengers alike, served as marketing tools for the airlines that operated the 747. The jumbo jet came to occupy a permanent place in the popular imagination around the world and remains, decades later, a symbol that represents the glamour of air travel in a bygone age.

This exhibit brings together passenger ephemera and other materials from the collections of Northwestern University's Transportation Library to celebrate the jumbo jet on the fiftieth anniversary of the launch of 747 passenger service.

Development of the 747

Development on the 747 program began in in the mid-1960s, with Boeing seeking to develop a commercial airplane that supported more efficient operations by carrying more passengers and cargo than already-existing aircraft.

The first order for the 747 began with a December 1965 conversation between Boeing President William Allen and Pan Am President Juan Trippe, and was said to have gone something like this:

Trippe: If you'll build it, I'll buy it.

Allen: If you buy it, I'll build it.

The order was finalized in April 1966, with Trippe agreeing to buy 25 airplanes for Pan Am at $20 million each.

At the height of the project in 1968, some 20,000 Boeing employees were at work on the project. The 747 debuted on its first test flight on February 9, 1969. The First Flight Crew is shown above: Jess Wallick, flight engineer, Jack Waddell, pilot, and Brien Wygle, co-pilot, the first men to have ever piloted a 747.

On launch day, twenty-six flight attendants representing each of the airlines that had ordered the 747 posed in front of the aircraft in Boeing's 747 assembly building in Everett, Washington. Over the next ten months an extensive flight test program followed, involving five airplanes and over 1,400 hours of flying. The 747 was certified by the FAA for commercial passenger service on December 30, 1969.

The 747 entered service with Pan Am on January 22, 1970. Following are timetables, menus, safety cards, and annual reports from some early operators of the jumbo jet, listed in order of each airline's first 747 flight.

First Commercial Flight

Pan Am introduced its first 747 service on January 22, 1970. Originally scheduled for January 21, the inaugural flight was delayed when technical difficulties grounded the aircraft that had been slated to make the journey. It was a second 747, originally named Clipper Victor but which Pan Am quickly re-christened Clipper Young America, which carried 335 passengers and 20 crew members from New York's JFK Airport to London Heathrow on the first commercial flight of a 747.

Pan Am's February 1970 timetable, the first listing 747 service, celebrated the new wide body jet on its cover.

The 747's landing in London was commemorated in a watercolor by John McCoy, part of a series celebrating historic first flights by Pan Am aircraft. The in-flight menu shown below, collected on an August 1985 flight, is one of a run from that era that featured the paintings on their covers.

"Pan Am's New 747," read the postcard shown below, "The plane with all the room in the world."

TWA

TWA took delivery of its first two 747s on December 31, 1969 and introduced scheduled service on February 25, 1970. The follo wing month, the airline opened Flight Wing One at New York's Kennedy Airport. The first terminal built expressly to accommodate the 747 and other wide body aircraft, it had seven passenger gates with the capacity to handle four 747s and three 707s simultaneously.

Like other airlines that ordered the 747, TWA worked with Boeing to customize the aircraft to its specifications. A survey was distributed during the design phase, with the airline inviting public input on cabin arrangements that included potential partitions between seats in economy class, luxury roomettes in first class, walk-in closets, and a separate nursery playroom section.

The airline featured the 747 on the cover of its February 1, 1970 timetable along with a crew of fourteen posing in front of the aircraft. By the end of the year, the airline had fourteen 747s on hand, with an additional five on order. The following year, TWA pioneered containerized air freight service, carrying cargo in the bellies of its 747s within the United States.

American Airlines

Competition among airlines to introduce the new series of jumbo jets was fierce. To accelerate its entry into 747 service, American Airlines leased two early-delivery 747s from Pan Am in early 1970. It was with one of these leased aircraft that American Airlines introduced its first 747 Astroliner service, on March 2 of that year. A second leased 747 and the airline's own fleet of sixteen 747s would be delivered later in 1970.

United Airlines

United Airlines took delivery of its first 747 in June 1970 and introduced the jumbo jet into service on July 23. In keeping with its Fly the Friendly Skies campaign, United named its 747 the Friend Ship. Like other airlines that received the 747, United took pains to differentiate its 747 service from the other airlines that put the jet into service and emphasized the warmth and personal service that passengers could expect to find on board: "For all its size, it's intimate."

The launch pamphlet for the Friend Ship included a cutaway diagram of the aircraft's interior, illustrating seating arrangements and on-board amenities including five movie screens, eleven restrooms, and fourteen baby bassinets. The aircraft also included two food service elevators and two personnel elevators.

A half-fold safety card, printed on heavy blue card stock, listed safety procedures for water and ground landings. The card shown here was printed in the Friend Ship's first month of service in July 1970.

National Airlines

National Airlines introduced its 747 service in October 1970 on its Miami - New York and Miami - Los Angeles routes. The two Boeing jets, named Patricia and Elizabeth (later renamed Jacqueline and Linda) and also known as the Sun Kings, were the only 747s that the airline acquired. National deemed the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 more suitable for its domestic routes, and it acquired nine of the smaller wide body jets in 1971.

Braniff International

Braniff International's first 747 was placed into service on a daily round-trip between Texas and Hawaii on January 15, 1971. Known alternately as Big Orange and 747 Braniff Place, it was marketed as "a place to live well in flight." With a 185-foot-long cabin, passengers were promised the freedom to roam across six lounges and ten conversation foyers before returning to the privacy and comfort of wing-backed, contoured chairs.

Air Canada

Air Canada took delivery of three 747s in 1971 and inaugurated its service with the new aircraft on April 25, 1971 on a daily non-stop flight between Toronto and Vancouver.

Passengers flying on Air Canada's 747 would have received the pamphlet shown at left with information on what to expect aboard the wide body jet. The color-coded diagram of the plane's interior and classes corresponded with color-coded boarding passes, designed to help passengers navigate the boarding experience in the plane's four cabins.

Air India

Air India took delivery of its first 747 on March 22, 1971. The aircraft entered into service on May 21 of that year, with service four times weekly from India to the United Kingdom. The airline debuted a new look in its aircraft exterior: silver and white with red details, it had windows described as Rajasthani style arches, intended to give the effect of a row of Jahorka type balconies reminiscent of the Hawai Mahal at Jaipur.

The airline's safety card for the 747 is shown below.

Lawrence M. Nagin Collection

Japan Airlines

Japan Airlines launched its first 747 service on July 1, 1971 on the Tokyo-Hong Kong and Tokyo-San Francisco-via-Honolulu Routes. Each section of the Garden Jet was designed around the theme of Japanese gardens: First class featured the Garden of Wisteria, the first-class lounge was called the Teahouse of the Sky, and the Gardens of Wild Orange, Pine, or Maple made up the three sections of economy class.

A Japan Airlines menu collected on a July 15, 1973 Tokyo - San Francisco flight provides examples of the food and beverage options offered on the Garden Jet. Passengers on this flight would have been served two meals on the flight: dinner, and a Pacific Morning Plate.

Transportation Library Menu Collection

The First-Class Lounge

The 747's upper-deck lounge was initially conceived of by Boeing as a rest area for flight crews. In consultation during development with Pan Am chairman Juan Trippe, it became the first-class passenger lounge that the aircraft was known for.

The lounge took form under the various operators, and was named the Tea House in the Sky on Japan Airlines, the Red Carpet Room on United Airlines, the Penthouse Lounge on TWA, and the International Lounge on Braniff.

In the years that followed the 747's launch, several variants of the aircraft were developed, updating technology with more powerful engines, longer ranges, increased seating capacities, and other improvements. Two notable variants include Air Force One, the aircraft that carries the President of the United States; and Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, a 747 modified to carry the Space Shuttle. The 747 was retired from passenger service by its last U.S. operator in 2017 but, as of December 2019, continues to be flown by other airlines worldwide including the largest operator British Airways.

Notes on Notes

More Information

Items in the exhibit are housed at Northwestern University's Transportation Library. Email transportationlibrary@northwestern.edu with questions, or to schedule an appointment.

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Longer than the Wright brothers' first flight, wider than a boulevard, and with a tail height as tall as a six-story building, the 747 was a revolution in aviation technology and the passenger experience when it entered service on January 22, 1970.

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Boeing 747-400

Exhibition: The 747 Experience

Ship 6301 moved to the Delta Flight Museum on April 30, 2016. After almost a year of work, this famous 747-400 opened as an exhibition on March 28, 2017. Inside, visitors are able to sit in aircraft seats, check out the upper deck, walk out on a wing, examine what goes on behind the walls of an aircraft, and learn all about the history of the 747 and its role in Delta's history. The plane is open 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. on days the Museum is open and is included with the cost of Museum admission.

Ship 6301 was the first 747-400 built by the Boeing Aircraft Company. It was registered by Boeing as N401PW, and first flew on April 29, 1988. It was used by Pratt & Whitney for engine testing prior to entry into service with Northwest Airlines.

Boeing changed the registration to N661US, and delivered Ship 6301 to Northwest Airlines in December 8, 1989. Ship 6301 joined the Delta fleet when Northwest merged with Delta in 2008.

After logging more than 61 million miles, Ship 6301 flew its final flight on September 9, 2015: Flight 836, from Honolulu to Atlanta.

Video Tour of the 747 Experience

This tour of the 747 Experience was created for Delta's BIG THANK YOU to their employees in April 2017. It gives a great idea of what to expect when you visit the 747 Experience!

The 747: Revolution in Aviation

Known as the "Queen of the Skies," the Boeing 747 is one of the most popular and recognizable aircraft in the world today. When the first 747 made its first commercial flight 45 years ago, critics thought the aircraft would soon become obsolete as designers believed that supersonic aircraft would be taking over the skies. However, the four-engine jumbo jet revolutionized the industry with its exceptional long-haul flight capability and sheer size, nearly three times larger than the largest jet flying at the time.

The improved 747-400 featured a new glass cockpit, tail fuel tanks, advanced engines and a new interior.

747-400 model is called a "high-tech" jumbo to distinguish its advanced features from its predecessor, the "classic jumbo" of the -100 to -300 series. 747-400s have been flown from the U.S. to numerous long-haul destinations including Amsterdam, Tel Aviv, Honolulu, Shanghai, Seoul, Tokyo, and Manila during the past 26 years.

More Information

Delta News Hub: See video and read about Ship 6301's final flight.

Atlanta Business Chronicle: See slideshow of Ship 6301 from Boeing factory to final flight.

Airways News: Read trip report from Ship 6301's final flight.

This Day in Aviation Blog: Learn about Ship 6301 (then N401PW) setting weight record for greatest mass (892,240 lbs.) carried to a height of 2,000 meters on June 27, 1988.

Jalopnik Blog: Read Northwest Airlines Capt. John Hansen's account of experiencing a first-of-its-kind tail control failure in Ship 6301 on a flight from Detroit to Tokyo in 2002. This incident led to repairs on other 747-400s to prevent similar incidences.

See Ship 6301 taxi to gate in Tokyo-Narita and tow to gate in Taiwan-Taoyuan, 2008.

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Ship 6301 moved to the Delta Flight Museum on April 30, 2016. After almost a year of work, this famous 747-400 opened as an exhibition on March 28, 2017.

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The Museum of Flight https://www.museumofflight.org/Areas/CMS/assets/img/MOF_logo_Black.png info@museumofflight.org 9404 East Marginal Way South Seattle WA 98108-4097 USA

The growing worldwide demand for air travel during the 1960s led Boeing to launch the 747, the first wide-body jet. Developing what was then the world's largest passenger aircraft was a formidable undertaking, requiring the company to risk much of its net worth. But the gamble paid off - over 1,500 units have been produced. With its massive size and signature upper deck "hump," the iconic 747 is one the most recognizable aircraft in the world. It triggered a revolution in air travel and represents a significant milestone in the evolution of aviation design.

The leviathan 747 required an all-new factory, which was built almost simultaneously with the first 747 at Paine Field in Everett, Washington. First flight occurred on February 9, 1969, followed by an extensive test program. The first 747 engine, the Pratt & Whitney JT9D, was an equally challenging engineering effort; it experienced numerous problems in initial service.

The 747 quickly became a mainstay of the world's international airlines. Continued development in the ensuing years has increased payload, range, and capability with multiple 747 variants. A freighter model, with a large nose cargo door, allows outsized payloads to be carried. A "Combi" was soon offered to allow simultaneous carriage of passengers and cargo on the main deck. A shortened version (747SP) debuted in 1976, capable of very long range flights. The 747-300 followed in 1982, with an extended upper deck. In 1989, a major upgrade was introduced in the form of the 747-400, with a modernized two-crew flight deck and improved performance. The 747-8, with all-new wings and engines, entered service in 2011.

The airplane proved to be highly flexible, performing many missions that were not part of its original design specifications. Two 747-100s were modified to become Shuttle Carrier Aircraft for the NASA Space Shuttle Program. Several aircraft were produced to serve as U.S. Air Force "command post" platforms, designated E-3 and E-4. In 1990, two 747-200Bs were modified as VC-25As to serve as Air Force One, the U.S. Presidential aircraft. Other unique modifications include the enlarged "Dreamlifter" for 787 components, the YAL-1A Airborne Laser Testbed, and the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA).

The Museum's aircraft was the first 747 ever built, known as RA001. After 747 certification testing, the aircraft served for many years as a company testbed for technology development and new engine programs for other Boeing commercial jets, including the Pratt & Whitney PW4000 for the Boeing 777. Planning for eventual donation to the Museum began in the mid-1980s. The aircraft's final flight occurred on April 6, 1995, when Boeing officially donated RA001 to the Museum after 5,300 flight hours. Still configured in its flight test configuration, it was extensively restored in 2013 and 2014.

Four Pratt & Whitney JT9D, 43,500 lbs. thrust each

About

The growing worldwide demand for air travel during the 1960s led Boeing to launch the 747, the first wide-body jet. Developing what was then the world's largest passenger aircraft was a formidable undertaking, requiring the company to risk much of its net worth. But the gamble paid off - over 1,500 units have been produced. With its massive size and signature upper deck "hump," the iconic 747 is one the most recognizable aircraft in the world. It triggered a revolution in air travel and represents a significant milestone in the evolution of aviation design.

The leviathan 747 required an all-new factory, which was built almost simultaneously with the first 747 at Paine Field in Everett, Washington. First flight occurred on February 9, 1969, followed by an extensive test program. The first 747 engine, the Pratt & Whitney JT9D, was an equally challenging engineering effort; it experienced numerous problems in initial service.

The 747 quickly became a mainstay of the world's international airlines. Continued development in the ensuing years has increased payload, range, and capability with multiple 747 variants. A freighter model, with a large nose cargo door, allows outsized payloads to be carried. A "Combi" was soon offered to allow simultaneous carriage of passengers and cargo on the main deck. A shortened version (747SP) debuted in 1976, capable of very long range flights. The 747-300 followed in 1982, with an extended upper deck. In 1989, a major upgrade was introduced in the form of the 747-400, with a modernized two-crew flight deck and improved performance. The 747-8, with all-new wings and engines, entered service in 2011.

The airplane proved to be highly flexible, performing many missions that were not part of its original design specifications. Two 747-100s were modified to become Shuttle Carrier Aircraft for the NASA Space Shuttle Program. Several aircraft were produced to serve as U.S. Air Force "command post" platforms, designated E-3 and E-4. In 1990, two 747-200Bs were modified as VC-25As to serve as Air Force One, the U.S. Presidential aircraft. Other unique modifications include the enlarged "Dreamlifter" for 787 components, the YAL-1A Airborne Laser Testbed, and the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA).

The Museum's aircraft was the first 747 ever built, known as RA001. After 747 certification testing, the aircraft served for many years as a company testbed for technology development and new engine programs for other Boeing commercial jets, including the Pratt & Whitney PW4000 for the Boeing 777. Planning for eventual donation to the Museum began in the mid-1980s. The aircraft's final flight occurred on April 6, 1995, when Boeing officially donated RA001 to the Museum after 5,300 flight hours. Still configured in its flight test configuration, it was extensively restored in 2013 and 2014.

Specs

Four Pratt & Whitney JT9D, 43,500 lbs. thrust each

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The Museum of Flight https://www.museumofflight.org/Areas/CMS/assets/img/MOF_logo_Black.png info@museumofflight.org 9404 East Marginal Way South Seattle WA 98108-4097 USA The growing worldwide demand for air travel during the 1960s led Boeing to launch the 747, the first wide-body jet. Developing what was then the world's largest passenger aircraft was a formidable undertaking, requiring the company to risk much of its net worth.

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Boeing 747 Singapore Airlines Boeing 747-400 Type Airliner Manufacturer Boeing Maiden flight 1969- 02-09 Introduced 1970- 01-22 with Pan American World Airways and Trans World Airlines Primary user Japan Airlines (60) British Airways (57) Korean Air (42) Cathay Pacific (37) Qantas (35) China Airlines (34) Air France (32) Number built 1375 as of 2006 Unit cost 747-100 $24,000,000 (1967) 747-200 $39,000,000 (1976) 747-300 $82,000,000 (1982) 747-400 $230,000,000 (2006) The Boeing 747, commonly called a Jumbo Jet, is among the most recognizable jet airliners and is the largest passenger airliner currently in service.

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Boeing Commercial Airplanes offers airplanes and services that deliver superior design, efficiency and value to customers around the world.

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SUPER-HEAVY TRANSPORT AIRCRAFT

First flight 1988

The AN-225 made its first flight on the 21st of December 1988 taking off from the factory aerodrome in Svyatoshyn. The airplane was flown by a crew headed by Oleksandr Galunenko. Mriya was developed for transportation of the Buran shuttle orbiter and components of the Energiya carrier rocket. The AN-225 was also expected to be used as a flying space launching site in the reusable aerospace transport system (MAKS) with the airplane making its first stage and a small-size space shuttle with a fuel tank - the second stage. Mriya can deliver extra-heavy oversize cargo to any point on the globe carrying it either inside the fuselage or on external stores. Two AN-225 airplanes were built. Construction of one of the aircraft was completed. Fuselage and tail unit were assembled at Antonov Kyiv Mechanical Works facility in Kyiv, while the wing center section and outer wing panels were assembled at Valerii Chkalov Tashkent Production Association in Tashkent. The wings and wing center sections were transported from Tashkent to Kyiv on the An-22 Antaeus (Antei).

Characteristics

Main characteristics

Length (m)

84

Height (m)

18.2

Wing span (m)

88.40

Wing area (m²)

905.0

Flight characteristics

Cruise speed (km/h)

800

Operational range (km)

15 400

Operational ceiling (m)

9 000

Advanced ideas and technologies are in great demand in our dynamic times. And that is what the ANTONOV COMPANY offers to the world market. Our company is now one of the few enterprises, running the complete development cycle of advanced aircraft - from preliminary design to construction, testing, certification, production and integrated logistic support.

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SUPER-HEAVY TRANSPORT AIRCRAFT First flight 1988 The AN-225 made its first flight on the 21st of December 1988 taking off from the factory aerodrome in Svyatoshyn. The airplane was flown by a crew headed by Oleksandr Galunenko. Mriya was developed for transportation of the Buran shuttle orbiter and components of the Energiya carrier rocket.

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Air-launching from the world's largest operating aircraft can eliminate technical and logistical barriers.

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The Antonov An-225 Mriya is a six engine, strategic heavy lift cargo transport aircraft designed and manufactured by the Antonov Design Bureau (ADB) of Ukraine. The term Mriya refers to the word dream or inspiration in English. Its NATO reporting name is Cossack.

The aircraft was derived from the An-124 Ruslan (NATO: Condor). Cossack is the heaviest fixed wing aircraft in the world to carry 640t of cargo. It is bigger than an Airbus 380 airliner, the An-124 and the Boeing 747 Freighter.

Variants

The An-225 Mriya has three variants: An-224, An-225-100 and An-325.

An-224 is the original designation of An-225. This variant features an additional rear cargo door.

An-225-100 is an improved version of the An-225. This variant is upgraded with better communication gear, navigation equipment and a traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS) for use in commercial operations.

An-325 is an extended variant of An-225. It is fitted with an additional engine on each in-board pylon, which increases the payload carrying capacity.

"ADB developed two An-225 Mriya prototypes."

Design

The An-225 is designed to execute both military and civil operations even in the worst weather conditions. It is designed principally to carry Energia rocket's boosters and the Buran space shuttle from its service area to the launch site as part of the Buran Space Shuttle Program.

Oversized payload can be carried in its spacious cargo deck as well as on an externally fixed mount.

Development

ADB developed two An-225 Mriya prototypes. The development of the first prototype began in early 1984 and its maiden flight took place in December 1988. It entered into service in 1989.

The modifications included the lengthening of fuselage and wingspan, addition of two engines, redesign of the tail with twin vertical fins, increase in the number of landing gear tires to 32 and the removal of the rear cargo doors. The aircraft initially had a maximum gross weight of 600t which was increased to 640t by the additional floor area under a $20m upgrade program.

The development of the second prototype began in the late 1980s with the aim of achieving more effective cargo transport aircraft. The prototype was upgraded with a rear cargo door and a redesigned tail fitted with a vertical stabiliser. Its development was, however, debarred in 1993 due to lack of funds and collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Following the cancellation of the Buran Space Shuttle Program, ADB placed the An-225 in storage during 1994-2000. The increase in demand for heavy freight transport aircraft resulted in resuming the development of second prototype in September 2006. The development was again deserted in August 2009, however.

Features

The Cossack features an airborne cargo handling system and a cargo door fitted with a ramp to carry out loading or unloading missions quickly and easily. It also features a fuselage barrel extension on the front and rear of the wings to increase the span. The load securing system attaches uniquely size cargoes to the upper fuselage section.

Flight deck

The aircraft features an IFR compatible, all digital flight deck, which can accommodate six crew including a pilot, co-pilot, navigator, radio operator and two flight engineers. The flight deck is incorporated with automated navigation and flight control systems for quick analysing and servicing.

Cabin

The large pressurised cargo compartment can carry wide variety of payloads. The length and width of the compartment are 43m and 6.4m respectively. Its height is 4.4m. The floor area and volume are 280m² and 1,300m³ respectively. The compartment can carry 250t of cargo internally or 200t up to a height of 70m on the upper fuselage.

The aircraft can achieve non-stop intra continental flight while accommodating 180t or 200t of payload. It can also perform intercontinental airlift of cargo weighing 150t. It can carry 16 standard UAC-10 aeronautical containers weighing 10t each, 50 auto cars, turbines, generators, dump trucks, Belaz, Kamatsu and Euclid.

Engines

The An-225 Mriya is powered by six Ivchenko Progress Lotarev D-18T, three shaft turbofan engines, each of which can produce a maximum thrust of 229.5kN.

"The An-225 Mriya can fly at a maximum speed of 850km/h."

It is fitted with a bucket-shape thrust reverser, a jetpipe, a drive box, an exhaust nozzle, a fan turbine, a combustion chamber,an intermediate drive, a fan stator blade and fan wheel.

The length and width of the engine are 5.4m and 2.7m respectively. The height is 2.9m high. The dry weight is 4,100kg. The service life is 24,000hours.

Landing gear

The aircraft is fitted with a 32-wheel landing gear system. The nose landing gear features four wheels in the front fuselage section. The rear fuselage constitutes 16 dirigible wheels out of 28 tires fitted to the main landing gear. The aircraft can take full turn on a 60m wide runway.

Performance

The An-225 Mriya can fly at a maximum speed of 850km/h. The cruise speed is 800km/h. The range of the aircraft varies between 4,000km and 15,400km.

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Antonov An-225 Mriya Super Heavy Transport Aircraft

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The Antonov An-225 Mriya is a six engine, strategic heavy lift cargo transport aircraft designed and manufactured by the Antonov Design Bureau (ADB) of Ukraine. The term Mriya refers to the word dream or inspiration in English. Its NATO reporting name is Cossack. The aircraft was derived from the An-124 Ruslan (NATO: Condor).

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Powered by Air

Aircraft require tremendous engine power to achieve liftoff and flight. A fully-loaded Airbus A380 - the largest passenger jet in operation - can weigh over 500 tons at takeoff, requiring four massive engines combining for 300,000 pounds of thrust.
The engines need to propel the plane fast enough to generate sufficient lift to overcome the force of gravity. But unlike land vehicles that push against the ground with powered wheels, aircraft generate thrust via propellers or engines that push against the air.
Gas turbine engines are filled with airfoils or "blades" of varying sizes attached to a rotating axle. The blades move air through the different stages of the engine, compressing and expanding the gas to produce thrust that propels the plane forward.

What does a gas turbine engine look like?

Below is schematic of a typical gas turbine engine. The air intake on the left is often accompanied by a large fan to increase suction. The air is then compressed to a smaller volume before being mixed with fuel in the combustion chamber. The mixture is ignited by a spark or flame, and the hot gas passes through a turbine that spins to power the compressor and fan. High pressure exhaust then passes out the back of the engine, producing thrust and propelling the plane forward. The stages of a gas turbine are outlined in more detail below.

Stages of a gas turbine jet engine

Fan: The fan is located at the front of the engine and is the primary air intake. Large spinning blades suck in vast quantities of air, accelerating the gas and splitting it into two separate streams. Some of the air is directed around to the rear of the engine to produce thrust, while the rest is channeled into the engine's core where it enters the next stage.
Compressor: The compressor squeezes the air drawn in by the fan blades, compressing it into a smaller volume and increasing the pressure. The compressor section is lined with multiple rows of blades that force the air into progressively smaller channels. Compressing the air increases the potential energy, and concentrates the oxygen molecules for more efficient combustion in the next stage.
Combustor: The combustor introduces fuel into the compressed air and ignites the mixture, creating a high-pressure expanding gas. This is the hottest section of the engine, where energy is released from burning fuel and temperatures can climb over 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The combustor is lined with fuel-injecting nozzles and an igniter to spark the reaction. Once ignition occurs, a steady stream of fuel ensures combustion is maintained, and the expanding gas is directed downstream into the turbine section.

Turbine: The turbine section is another series of rotating blades that are driven by high-pressure air leaving the combustor. The turbine blades catch the rapid airflow, and rotate to drive a spinning shaft that turns the fan and compressor at the front of the engine. The turbine essentially powers the rest of the engine, harnessing energy from the combustion chamber to maintain steady air intake and compression. Air passing though the turbine loses energy to the rotating blades, but what remains moves into the final exhaust stage of the engine where it is expelled to produce thrust.

Nozzle: The nozzle is the cone-shaped duct at the rear of the engine. Here the airflow from the engine core and the bypassed air from the fan section are expelled to produce thrust. The engine nozzle is usually tapered to accelerate the escaping gas, and the air exiting the nozzle exerts a force on the engine that propels the aircraft forward.
Some engines employ an afterburner to generate additional thrust. The afterburner injects more fuel and ignites the mixture after it has passed through the turbine. The process significantly enhances the velocity of air exiting the nozzle, but it consumes excess fuel and is only employed for brief periods on specialized military aircraft.

How Does a Jet Engine Work - Video Summary

Here's a fun video produced by CFM International that follows animated air particles through each stage of a high-bypass turbofan engine.

Airfoil Enhancement

A single jet engine can have hundreds of blades within the fan, compressor and turbine sections. These blades vary in size, shape, and material composition, but they all perform critical functions in the engine's operation. Given the extreme forces and temperatures present within a gas turbine engine, metal enhancement techniques like laser peening are vital to the safety and performance of the engine and its components.

FOD Resistance: Foreign object damage (FOD) is a serious hazard for aircraft engines. The powerful suction created by the fan and compressor can pull in hard objects like ice chunks or runway debris, potentially damaging engine components. Laser peening provides unparalleled FOD resistance, and has been shown to significantly impede the cracking and fracture associated with FOD in titanium fan blades. Laser peening has been employed for more than 20 years to protect critical engine components in the B-1 Bomber.
Fatigue Crack Prevention: Fatigue cracking is another major hazard for aircraft engine blades. As the components rotate at high speeds, each blade experiences tensile stress that repeats for millions of cycles. If a crack develops in the metal, even at a microscopic scale, the repeated loading of each cycle can progressively widen the crack until it grows so large that the blade fractures. Laser peening is often applied to fan, compressor, and turbine blades in areas that are prone to cracking and fatigue. The deep compressive residual stresses imparted by laser peening impede crack initiation and propagation, extending the service life of blades and preventing unexpected failures.
Next week we'll discuss the different types of aircraft engines: From turbofans and turboprops to ramjets and scramjets.
Follow us on LinkedIn so you never miss an article or blog.
Contact LSPT to learn more about laser peening gas turbine engine components.

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How do Aircraft Engines Work? | LSP Technologies

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Aircraft require tremendous engine power to achieve liftoff and flight. A fully-loaded Airbus A380 - the largest passenger jet in operation - can weigh over 500 tons at takeoff, requiring four massive engines combining for 300,000 pounds of thrust. The engines need to propel the plane fast enough to generate sufficient lift to overcome the force of gravity.

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Even to pilots, the 1903 Wright Flyer is a mysterious bundle of wire and cables that has little in common with today's aircraft. But look more closely at how the machine flies and you begin to see the connections. Crawl over the wing, settle into the hip cradle, and discover the Wrights' ingenuity in identifying and controlling the complex forces that act on an aircraft in flight.

Climb in facing the two-surface horizontal elevator. On modern aircraft the elevator and rudder are combined in the tail, but here they are separated: elevator in front, rudder behind. The two elevator surfaces generate lift. They also provide a handy reference point to the horizon, and give the prone pilot some protection in the event of a crash.

The Wrights reasoned that a prone figure piloting the aircraft would create slightly less drag than a seated pilot. You may eat a few mouthfuls of sand on the rougher landings, but that's a small price to pay for flying the world's first airplane. You have half a gallon of fuel on board, enough to fly for 20 minutes, but your neck will start to ache long before your fuel runs out.

Start the engine, which is at your right, offset from center, by moving the horizontal lever at your right hand to the center position. This opens the cock connecting the fuel line to the engine. Simultaneously, assistants will pull the propellers through in unison. The two propellers, mounted at the rear of the wings, rotate in opposite directions to cancel torque, which tends to pull an airplane in the opposite direction of its propeller's rotation.

A small truck made with the hub of a bicycle wheel supports the craft in the rear; another hub is affixed to the craft at the front. With the engine running and the propellers turning, an assistant releases the restraining wires and you roll on the hubs along a single rail. With the required 20-knot wind on the nose, you will lift off in about 40 feet. Your left hand rests on the elevator control, a small lever attached to a rod running along the leading edge of the lower wing. Pull back slightly on the lever and the connecting rods tilt the elevator assembly in front of you slightly up, creating enough lift to urge the wings upward. (The elevator is very sensitive; use small motions.)

Other aviation visionaries attempted to control flight in only two axes: pitch-nose up and down, and yaw-nose side-to-side. The Wrights were the first to understand the third: roll. Their patented wing-warping system controlled the Flyer 's movement around its longitudinal axis. Sliding the hip cradle deflects the edges of the wings' outboard sections and causes the airplane to bank. The center section of the airplane stays rigid as a stable platform for the propeller shafts and transmission chains.

The braided cable attached to the hip cradle zigzags through pulleys placed about two-thirds of the way back along the rear wing struts. When you slide the hip cradle to the right, the cable pulls the right wing tips down and the left wing tips up. The left wing tips, with their increased angle of incidence, generate more lift. The left wings rise as the right wings, with their lift decreased, fall. The airplane rolls to the right.

In the roll, the left wings, with their increased lift, also develop correspondingly increased drag. That makes the left wings fall slightly behind the right wings, pulling the nose to the left as the airplane rolls right. The Wrights corrected for this "adverse yaw" by connecting the rear rudder to the wing-warping system. As the airplane rolls to the right, the interconnected cables pivot the rudder so that its trailing edge points right. Acting as an airfoil, the rudder generates enough lift to resist the yaw caused by the slowed left wing, holding the airplane so that the nose continues to point right.

At the end of the flight, you land in the sand on the skids on the Flyer's underside. Most landings break something on the airframe. No matter, the simple ash-and-spruce frame can be repaired much more easily than today's aluminum or fiberglass fuselages. After a day in the shop, the Flyer will be ready for another few minutes of flight.

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Even to pilots, the 1903 Wright Flyer is a mysterious bundle of wire and cables that has little in common with today's aircraft. But look more closely at how the machine flies and you begin to see the connections.

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NOVA | Wright Brothers' Flying Machine | Pilot the 1903 Flyer (non-interactive) | PBS

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(non-Flash) The world's first airplane had parts we're all familiar with-rudder, engine, propellers-and some most of us are not, including a hip cradle and bicycle hub. In this interactive feature, manipulate controls to gain a sense of how the Flyer flew.

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Wright flyer of 1903 | First Airplane Flight, Aviation History

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Wright flyer of 1903, first powered airplane to demonstrate sustained flight under the full control of the pilot. Designed and built by Wilbur and Orville Wright in Dayton, Ohio, it was assembled in the autumn of 1903 at a camp at the base of the Kill Devil Hills, near Kitty Hawk, a village on the

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On December 17, 1903, the Wright brothers inaugurated the aerial age with their successful first flights of a heavier-than-air flying machine at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. This airplane, known as the Wright Flyer, sometimes referred to as the Kitty Hawk Flyer, was the product of a sophisticated four-year program of research and development conducted by Wilbur and Orville Wright beginning in 1899. During the Wrights' design and construction of their experimental aircraft they also pioneered many of the basic tenets and techniques of modern aeronautical engineering, such as the use of a wind tunnel and flight testing as design tools. Their seminal accomplishment encompassed not only the breakthrough first flight of an airplane, but also the equally important achievement of establishing the foundation of aeronautical engineering.

The Wright brothers had a passing interest in flight as youngsters. In 1878 their father gave them a toy flying helicopter model powered by strands of twisted rubber. They played and experimented with it extensively and even built several larger copies of the device. They also had some experience with kites. But not until 1896, prompted by the widely publicized fatal crash of famed glider pioneer Otto Lilienthal, did the Wrights begin serious study of flight. After absorbing what materials related to the subject the brothers had available locally, Wilbur wrote to the Smithsonian Institution on May 30, 1899, requesting any publications on aeronautics that it could offer.

Shortly after their receipt of the Smithsonian materials, the Wrights built their first aeronautical craft, a five-foot-wingspan biplane kite, in the summer of 1899. The Wrights chose to follow Lilienthal's lead of using gliders as a stepping stone towards a practical powered airplane. The 1899 kite was built as a preliminary test device to establish the viability of the control system that they planned to use in their first full-size glider. This means of control would be a central feature of the later successful powered airplane.

Rather than controlling the craft by altering the center of gravity by shifting the pilot's body weight as Lilienthal had done, the Wrights intended to balance their glider aerodynamically. They reasoned that if a wing generates lift when presented to an oncoming flow of air, producing differing amounts of lift on either end of the wing would cause one side to rise more than the other, which in turn would bank the entire aircraft. A mechanical means of inducing this differential lift would provide the pilot with effective lateral control of the airplane. The Wrights accomplished this by twisting, or warping, the tips of the wings in opposite directions via a series of lines attached to the outer edges of the wings that were manipulated by the pilot. The idea advanced aeronautical experimentation significantly because it provided an effective method of controlling an airplane in three-dimensional space and, because it was aerodynamically based, it did not limit the size of the aircraft as shifting body weight obviously did. The satisfactory performance of the 1899 kite demonstrated the practicality of the wing warping control system.

Encouraged by the success of their small wing warping kite, the brothers built and flew two full-size piloted gliders in 1900 and 1901. Beyond the issue of control, the Wrights had to grapple with developing an efficient airfoil shape and solving fundamental problems of structural design. Like the kite, these gliders were biplanes. For control of climb and descent, the gliders had forward-mounted horizontal stabilizers. Neither craft had a tail. The Wrights' home of Dayton, Ohio, did not offer suitable conditions for flying the gliders. An inquiry with the U.S. Weather Bureau identified Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, with its sandy, wide-open spaces and strong, steady winds as an optimal test site. In September 1900, the Wrights made their first trip to the little fishing hamlet that they would make world famous.

Although the control system worked well and the structural design of the craft was sound, the lift of the gliders was substantially less than the Wrights' earlier calculations had predicted. They began to question seriously the aerodynamic data that they had used. Now at a critical juncture, Wilbur and Orville decided to conduct an extensive series of tests of wing shapes. They built a small wind tunnel in the fall of 1901 to gather a body of accurate aerodynamic data with which to design their next glider. The heart of the Wright wind tunnel was the ingeniously designed pair of test instruments that were mounted inside. These measured coefficients of lift and drag on small model wing shapes, the terms in the equations for calculating lift and drag about which the brothers were in doubt.

The Wrights' third glider, built in 1902 based on the wind tunnel experiments, was a dramatic success. The lift problems were solved, and with a few refinements to the control system (the key one being a movable vertical tail), they were able to make numerous extended controlled glides. They made between seven hundred and one thousand flights in 1902. The single best one was 191.5 m (622.5 ft) in twenty-six seconds. The brothers were now convinced that they stood at the threshold of realizing mechanical flight.

During the spring and summer of 1903 they built their first powered airplane. Essentially a larger and sturdier version of the 1902 glider, the only fundamentally new component of the 1903 aircraft was the propulsion system. With the assistance of their bicycle shop mechanic, Charles Taylor, the Wrights built a small, twelve-horsepower gasoline engine. While the engine was a significant enough achievement, the genuinely innovative feature of the propulsion system was the propellers. The brothers conceived the propellers as rotary wings, producing a horizontal thrust force aerodynamically. By turning an airfoil section on its side and spinning it to create an air flow over the surface, the Wrights reasoned that a horizontal "lift" force would be generated that would propel the airplane forward. The concept was one of the most original and creative aspects of the Wrights' aeronautical work. The 1903 airplane was fitted with two propellers mounted behind the wings and connected to the engine, centrally located on the bottom wing, via a chain-and-sprocket transmission system.

By the fall of 1903, the powered airplane was ready for trial. A number of problems with the engine transmission system delayed the first flight attempt until mid-December. After winning the toss of a coin to determine which brother would make the first try, Wilbur took the pilot's position and made an unsuccessful attempt on December 14th, damaging the Flyer slightly. Repairs were completed for a second attempt on December 17. It was now Orville's turn. At 10:35 a.m. the Flyer lifted off the beach at Kitty Hawk for a 12-second flight, traveling 36 m (120 ft). Three more flights were made that morning, the brothers alternating as pilot. The second and third were in the range of two hundred feet. With Wilbur at the controls, the fourth and last flight covered 255.6 m (852 ft) in 59 seconds. With this final long, sustained effort, there was no question the Wrights had flown.

As the brothers and the others present discussed the long flight, a gust of wind overturned the Wright Flyer and sent it tumbling across the sand. The aircraft was severely damaged and never flown again. But the Wrights had achieved what they had set out to do. They had successfully demonstrated their design for a heavier-than-air flying machine. They built refined versions of the Flyer in 1904 and 1905, bringing the design to practicality. On October 5, 1905, with the brothers' third powered airplane, Wilbur made a spectacular 39-minute flight that covered 39.2 km (24.5 miles) over a closed course.

After the first powered Flyer of 1903 took its destructive tumble at Kitty Hawk, the Wrights crated it and shipped it back to Dayton where it remained in storage in a shed behind their bicycle shop, untouched for more than a decade. In March 1913, Dayton was hit by a serious flood, during which the boxes containing the Flyer were submerged in water and mud for eleven days. The airplane was uncrated, for the first time since Kitty Hawk, in the summer of 1916, when Orville repaired and reassembled the airplane for brief exhibition at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Several other brief displays followed. It was exhibited at the New York Aero Show in 1917, at a Society of Automotive Engineers meeting in Dayton in 1918, at the New York Aero Show in 1919, and at the National Air Races in Dayton in 1924. On each of these occasions the Wright Flyer was prepared and assembled for exhibition by a Wright Company mechanic named Jim Jacobs, working under the supervision of Orville.

In 1928 the airplane was placed on loan to the Science Museum in London. Before shipping it to Europe, Orville and Jim Jacobs refurbished the Flyer extensively. The fabric covering was replaced completely with new material, although it was of the same type as the original "Pride of the West" muslin. The remaining 1903 fabric that was on the airplane when it flew was saved and portions of it still exist in various places. During World War II, the airplane was kept in an underground storage facility near the village of Corsham, approximately 160 km (100 miles) from London, where various British national treasures were secured. The Flyer was not stored in the London subway as has been often asserted. The airplane was returned to the United States in 1948 and formally donated to the Smithsonian Institution in an elaborate ceremony on December 17, the 45th anniversary of the flights, and it has been on public display there ever since.

The Flyer received some minor repairs and cleaning in 1976 just before being moved into the Smithsonian's then new National Air and Space Museum building. In 1985, the airplane was given its first major treatment since preparing it for loan to the Science Museum in late 1926 and early 1927. It was completely disassembled, the parts thoroughly cleaned and preserved, and all new fabric covering applied. A careful search was made to locate new fabric that matched the original as closely as possible. When the fabric was replaced in 1927, it was sewn on in a slightly different way than originally done by the brothers in 1903. When stitching the new fabric in 1985, a large section of original flown 1903 wing covering was available and used as a pattern, ensuring the accuracy of the 1985 restoration.

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Canard biplane with one 12-horsepower Wright horizontal four-cylinder engine driving two pusher propellers via sprocket-and-chain transmission system. Non-wheeled, linear skids act as landing gear.

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The Four Forces

An aircraft in straight and level flight is acted upon by four forces: lift, gravity, thrust and drag. The opposing forces balance each other: Lift equals gravity, and thrust equals drag.

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The Four Forces An aircraft in straight and level flight is acted upon by four forces: lift, gravity, thrust and drag. The opposing forces balance each other: Lift equals gravity, and thrust equals drag.

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The image above shows how a jet engine would be situated in a modern military aircraft. In the basic jet engine, air enters the front intake and is compressed (we will see how later). Then the air is forced into combustion chambers where fuel is sprayed into it, and the mixture of air and fuel is ignited. Gases that form expand rapidly and are exhausted through the rear of the combustion chambers. These gases exert equal force in all directions, providing forward thrust as they escape to the rear. As the gases leave the engine, they pass through a fan-like set of blades (turbine), which rotates a shaft called the turbine shaft. This shaft, in turn, rotates the compressor, thereby bringing in a fresh supply of air through the intake. Below is an animation of an isolated jet engine, which illustrates the process of air inflow, compression, combustion, air outflow and shaft rotation just described.

The process can be described by the following diagram adopted from the website of Rolls Royce, a popular manufacturer of jet engines.

This process is the essence of how jet engines work, but how exactly does something like compression (squeezing) occur? To find out more about each of the four steps in the creation of thrust by a jet engine, see below.

SUCK

The engine sucks in a large volume of air through the fan and compressor stages. A typical commercial jet engine takes in 1.2 tons of air per second during takeoff—in other words, it could empty the air in a squash court in less than a second. The mechanism by which a jet engine sucks in the air is largely a part of the compression stage. In many engines the compressor is responsible for both sucking in the air and compressing it. Some engines have an additional fan that is not part of the compressor to draw additional air into the system.The fan is the leftmost component of the engine illustrated above.

SQUEEZE

Aside from drawing air into the engine, the compressor also pressurizes the air and delivers it to the combustion chamber.The compressor is shown in the above image just to the left of the fire in the combustion chamber and to the right of the fan. The compression fans are driven from the turbine by a shaft (the turbine is in turn driven by the air that is leaving the engine). Compressors can achieve compression ratios in excess of 40:1, which means that the pressure of the air at the end of the compressor is over 40 times that of the air that enters the compressor. At full power the blades of a typical commercial jet compressor rotate at 1000mph (1600kph) and take in 2600lb (1200kg) of air per second.

Now we will discuss how the compressor actually compresses the air.

As can be seen in the image above, the green fans that compose the compressor gradually get smaller and smaller, as does the cavity through which the air must travel. The air must continue moving to the right, toward the combustion chambers of the engine, since the fans are spinning and pushing the air in that direction.The result is a given amount of air moving from a larger space to a smaller one, and thus increasing in pressure.

BANG

In the combustion chamber, fuel is mixed with air to produce the bang, which is responsible for the expansion that forces the air into the turbine. Inside the typical commercial jet engine, the fuel burns in the combustion chamber at up to 2000 degrees Celsius. The temperature at which metals in this part of the engine start to melt is 1300 degrees Celsius, so advanced cooling techniques must be used .

The combustion chamber has the difficult task of burning large quantities of fuel, supplied through fuel spray nozzles, with extensive volumes of air, supplied by the compressor, and releasing the resulting heat in such a manner that the air is expanded and accelerated to give a smooth stream of uniformly heated gas. This task must be accomplished with the minimum loss in pressure and with the maximum heat release within the limited space available.

The amount of fuel added to the air will depend upon the temperature rise required. However, the maximum temperature is limited to certain range dictated by the materials from which the turbine blades and nozzles are made. The air has already been heated to between 200 and 550 °C by the work done in the compressor, giving a temperature rise requirement of around 650 to 1150 °C from the combustion process. Since the gas temperature determines the engine thrust, the combustion chamber must be capable of maintaining stable and efficient combustion over a wide range of engine operating conditions.

The air brought in by the fan that does not go through the core of the engine and is thus not used for combustion, which amounts to about 60 percent of the total airflow, is introduced progressively into the flame tube to lower the temperature inside the combustor and cool the walls of the flame tube.

BLOW

The reaction of the expanded gas—the mixture of fuel and air—being forced through the turbine, drives the fan and compressor and blows out of the exhaust nozzle providing the thrust.

Thus, the turbine has the task of providing power to drive the compressor and accessories. It does this by extracting energy from the hot gases released from the combustion system and expanding them to a lower pressure and temperature. The continuous flow of gas to which the turbine is exposed may enter the turbine at a temperature between 850 and 1700 °C, which is again far above the melting point of current materials technology.

To produce the driving torque, the turbine may consist of several stages, each employing one row of moving blades and one row of stationary guide vanes to direct the air as desired onto the blades. The number of stages depends on the relationship between the power required from the gas flow, the rotational speed at which it must be produced, and the diameter of turbine permitted.

The desire to produce a high engine efficiency demands a high turbine inlet temperature, but this causes problems as the turbine blades would be required to perform and survive long operating periods at temperatures above their melting point. These blades, while glowing red-hot, must be strong enough to carry the centrifugal loads due to rotation at high speed.

To operate under these conditions, cool air is forced out of many small holes in the blade. This air remains close to the blade, preventing it from melting, but not detracting significantly from the engine's overall performance. Nickel alloys are used to construct the turbine blades and the nozzle guide vanes because these materials demonstrate good properties at high temperatures

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The image above shows how a jet engine would be situated in a modern military aircraft. In the basic jet engine, air enters the front intake and is compressed (we will see how later). Then the air is forced into combustion chambers where fuel is sprayed into it, and the mixture of air and fuel is ignited.

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by Chris Woodford. Last updated: August 24, 2020.

Turn your eyes to the sky and it's likely you'll see more than a few vapor trails-the wispy white lines that jet planes scribble on the great blue canvas stretched above our heads. At the dawn of the 20th century, the very idea of powered flight seemed, to many, like a ludicrous dream. How things have changed! At any given moment, there are something like 5,000 flights zipping through the sky over the United States alone; we're so used to the idea of flight that we barely even notice all the planes screaming above us, hauling hundreds of people at a time to their homes and holidays. Most modern planes are powered by jet engines (more correctly, as we'll see in a moment, gas turbines). What exactly are these magic machines and what makes them different from the engines used in cars or trucks? Let's take a closer look at how they work!

Photo: Jet engines don't just power planes. This is a rear view of Shockwave, a racing truck fired along by three 12,000 horsepower (9 megawatt) jet engines, which reaches an almost unbelievable maximum speed of around 600 km/h (375mph)! Picture by Stephen D. Schester courtesy of US Air Force.

What is a jet engine?

A jet engine is a machine that converts energy-rich, liquid fuel into a powerful pushing force called thrust. The thrust from one or more engines pushes a plane forward, forcing air past its scientifically shaped wings to create an upward force called lift that powers it into the sky. That, in short, is how planes work -but how do jet engines work?

Photo: A jet engine taken apart during testing. You can clearly see the giant fan at the front. This spins around to suck air into the engine as the plane flies through the sky. Picture by Ian Schoeneberg courtesy of US Navy.

Jet engines and car engines

One way to understand modern jet engines is to compare them with the piston engines used in early airplanes, which are very similar to the ones still used in cars. A piston engine (also called a reciprocating engine, because the pistons move back and forth or "reciprocate") makes its power in strong steel "cooking pots" called cylinders. Fuel is squirted into the cylinders with air from the atmosphere. The piston in each cylinder compresses the mixture, raising its temperature so it either ignites spontaneously (in a diesel engine) or with help from a sparking plug (in a gas engine). The burning fuel and air explodes and expands, pushing the piston back out and driving the crankshaft that powers the car's wheels (or the plane's propeller), before the whole four-step cycle (intake, compression, combustion, exhaust) repeats itself. The trouble with this is that the piston is driven only during one of the four steps-so it's making power only a fraction of the time. The amount of power a piston engine makes is directly related to how big the cylinder is and how far the piston moves; unless you use hefty cylinders and pistons (or many of them), you're limited to producing relatively modest amounts of power. If your piston engine is powering a plane, that limits how fast it can fly, how much lift it can make, how big it can be, and how much it can carry.

Photo: Massive thrust! A Pratt and Whitney F119 jet aircraft engine creates 156,000 newtons (35,000 pounds) of thrust during this US Air Force test in 2002. That sounds like a lot of power, but it's less than half the thrust produced by one of the vast jet engines (turbofans) on an airliner, as you can see from the bar chart further down this article. Picture by Albert Bosco courtesy of US Air Force.

A jet engine uses the same scientific principle as a car engine: it burns fuel with air (in a chemical reaction called combustion) to release energy that powers a plane, vehicle, or other machine. But instead of using cylinders that go through four steps in turn, it uses a long metal tube that carries out the same four steps in a straight-line sequence-a kind of thrust-making production line! In the simplest type of jet engine, called a turbojet, air is drawn in at the front through an inlet (or intake), compressed by a fan, mixed with fuel and combusted, and then fired out as a hot, fast moving exhaust at the back.

Three things make a jet engine more powerful than a car's piston engine:

1. A basic principle of physics called the law of conservation of energy tells us that if a jet engine needs to make more power each second, it has to burn more fuel each second. A jet engine is meticulously designed to hoover up huge amounts of air and burn it with vast amounts of fuel (roughly in the ratio 50 parts air to one part fuel), so the main reason why it makes more power is because it can burn more fuel.

2. Because intake, compression, combustion, and exhaust all happen simultaneously, a jet engine produces maximum power all the time (unlike a single cylinder in a piston engine).

3. Unlike a piston engine (which uses a single stroke of the piston to extract energy), a typical jet engine passes its exhaust through multiple turbine "stages" to extract as much energy as possible. That makes it much more efficient (it gets more power from the same mass of fuel).

Gas turbines

A more technical name for a jet engine is a gas turbine, and although it's not immediately obvious what that means, it's actually a much better description of how an engine like this really works. A jet engine works by burning fuel in air to release hot exhaust gas. But where a car engine uses the explosions of exhaust to push its pistons, a jet engine forces the gas past the blades of a windmill-like spinning wheel (a turbine), making it rotate. So, in a jet engine, exhaust gas powers a turbine-hence the name gas turbine.

Action and reaction

When we talk about jet engines, we to tend think of rocket-like tubes that fire exhaust gas backward. Another basic bit of physics, Newton's third law of motion, tells us that as a jet engine's exhaust gas shoots back, the plane itself must move forward. It's exactly like a skateboarder kicking back on the pavement to go forward; in a jet engine, it's the exhaust gas that provides the "kick". In everyday words, the action (the force of the exhaust gas shooting backward) is equal and opposite to the reaction (the force of the plane moving forward); the action moves the exhaust gas, while the reaction moves the plane.

But not all jet engines work this way: some produce hardly any rocket exhaust at all. Instead, most of their power is harnessed by the turbine-and the shaft attached to the turbine is used to power a propeller (in a propeller airplane), a rotor blade (in a helicopter), a giant fan (in a large passenger jet), or an electricity generator (in a gas-turbine power plant). We'll look at these different types of gas turbine "jet" engines in a bit more detail in a moment. First, let's look at how a simple jet engine makes its power.

How a jet engine works

This simplified diagram shows you the process through which a jet engine converts the energy in fuel into kinetic energy that makes a plane soar through the air. (It uses a small part of the top photo on this page, taken by Ian Schoeneberg courtesy of US Navy):

1. For a jet going slower than the speed of sound, the engine is moving through the air at about 1000 km/h (600 mph). We can think of the engine as being stationary and the cold air moving toward it at this speed.

2. A fan at the front sucks the cold air into the engine and forces it through the inlet. This slows the air down by about 60 percent and its speed is now about 400 km/h (240 mph).

3. A second fan called a compressor squeezes the air (increases its pressure) by about eight times, and this dramatically increases its temperature.

4. Kerosene (liquid fuel) is squirted into the engine from a fuel tank in the plane's wing.

5. In the combustion chamber, just behind the compressor, the kerosene mixes with the compressed air and burns fiercely, giving off hot exhaust gases and producing a huge increase in temperature. The burning mixture reaches a temperature of around 900°C (1650°F).

6. The exhaust gases rush past a set of turbine blades, spinning them like a windmill. Since the turbine gains energy, the gases must lose the same amount of energy-and they do so by cooling down slightly and losing pressure.

7. The turbine blades are connected to a long axle (represented by the middle gray line) that runs the length of the engine. The compressor and the fan are also connected to this axle. So, as the turbine blades spin, they also turn the compressor and the fan.

8. The hot exhaust gases exit the engine through a tapering exhaust nozzle. Just as water squeezed through a narrow pipe accelerates dramatically into a fast jet (think of what happens in a water pistol), the tapering design of the exhaust nozzle helps to accelerate the gases to a speed of over 2100 km/h (1300 mph). So the hot air leaving the engine at the back is traveling over twice the speed of the cold air entering it at the front-and that's what powers the plane. Military jets often have an after burner that squirts fuel into the exhaust jet to produce extra thrust. The backward-moving exhaust gases power the jet forward. Because the plane is much bigger and heavier than the exhaust gases it produces, the exhaust gases have to zoom backward much faster than the plane's own speed.

In brief, you can see that each main part of the engine does a different thing to the air or fuel mixture passing through:

Compressor: Dramatically increases the pressure of the air (and, to a lesser extent) its temperature.

Combustion chamber: Dramatically increases the temperature of the air-fuel mixture by releasing heat energy from the fuel.

Exhaust nozzle: Dramatically increases the velocity of the exhaust gases, so powering the plane.

What do jet engines look like in reality? A lot more complicated than my little picture! Here's a typical example of a large, real turbofan engine, opened up and undergoing maintenance. I've labelled eight major parts in my explanation above; as you can see here, a real jet engine has a good few thousand!

Photo: A Pratt Whitney F117 PW-100 jet engine from a US Air Force C-17 Globemaster plane, undergoing maintenance. Photo by Joshua J. Seybert courtesy of US Air Force.

Types of jet engines

Artwork: A summary of six main types of jet engine. Each one is explained further in the text below, followed by a link to an excellent NASA website where you'll find even more graphics and animations.

All jet engines and gas turbines work in broadly the same way (pulling air through an inlet, compressing it, combusting it with fuel, and allowing the exhaust to expand through a turbine), so they all share five key components: an inlet, a compressor, a combustion chamber, and a turbine (arranged in exactly that sequence) with a driveshaft running through them.

But there the similarities end. Different types of engines have extra components (driven by the turbine), the inlets work in different ways, there may be more than one combustion chamber, there might be two or more compressors and multiple turbines. And the application (the job the engine has to do) is also very important. Aerospace engines are designed through meticulously engineered compromise: they need to produce maximum power from minimum fuel (with maximum efficiency, in other words) while being as small, light, and quiet as possible. Gas turbines used on the ground (for example, in power plants) don't necessarily need to compromise in quite the same way; they don't need to be either small or light, though they certainly still need maximum power and efficiency.

Turbojets

Photo: Early Turbojet engines on a Boeing B-52A Stratofortress plane, pictured in 1954. The B-52A had eight Pratt and Whitney J-57 turbojets, each of which could produce about 10,000 pounds of thrust. Picture courtesy of US Air Force.

Whittle's original design was called a turbojet and it's still widely used in airplanes today. A turbojet is the simplest kind of jet engine based on a gas turbine: it's a basic "rocket" jet that moves a plane forward by firing a hot jet of exhaust backward. The exhaust leaving the engine is much faster than the cold air entering it-and that's how a turbojet makes its thrust. In a turbojet, all the turbine has to do is power the compressor, so it takes relatively little energy away from the exhaust jet.

Turbojets are basic, general-purpose jet engines that produce steady amounts of power all the time, so they're suitable for small, low-speed jet planes that don't have to do anything particularly remarkable (like accelerating suddenly or carrying enormous amounts of cargo). The engine we've explained and illustrated up above is an example. Read more about turbojets from NASA (includes an animated engine you can play about with).

Turboshafts

Photo: The gray tube you can see under the rotor of this US military Seahawk helicopter is one of its twin turboshaft engines. There's another one exactly the same on the other side. Photo by Trevor Kohlrus courtesy of US Navy.

You might not think helicopters are driven by jet engines-they have those huge rotors on top doing all the work-but you'd be wrong: the rotors are powered by one or two gas-turbine engines called turboshafts. A turboshaft is very different from a turbojet, because the exhaust gas produces relatively little thrust. Instead, the turbine in a turbojet captures most of the power and the driveshaft running through it turns a transmission and one or more gearboxes that spin the rotors. Apart from helicopters, you'll also find turboshaft engines in trains, tanks, and boats. Gas turbine engines mounted in things like power plants are also turboshafts.

Turboprops

Photo: A turboprop engine uses a jet engine to power a propeller. Photo by Eduardo Zaragoza courtesy of US Navy.

A modern plane with a propeller typically uses a turboprop engine. It's similar to the turboshaft in a helicopter but, instead of powering an overhead rotor, the turbine inside it spins a propeller mounted on the front that pushes the plane forward. Unlike a turboshaft, a turboprop does produce some forward thrust from its exhaust gas, but the majority of the thrust comes from the propeller. Since propeller-driven planes fly more slowly, they waste less energy fighting drag (air resistance), and that makes them very efficient for use in workhorse cargo planes and other small, light aircraft. However, propellers themselves create a lot of air resistance, which is one reason why turbofans were developed. Read more about turboprops from NASA.

Turbofans

Photo: A turbofan engine produces more thrust using an inner fan and an outer bypass (the smaller ring you can see between the inner fan and the outer case). Each one of these engines produces 43,000 pounds of thrust (almost 4.5 times more than the Stratofortress engines up above)! Photo by Lance Cheung courtesy of US Air Force.

Giant passenger jets have huge fans mounted on the front, which work like super-efficient propellers. The fans work in two ways. They slightly increase the air that flows through the center (core) of the engine, producing more thrust with the same fuel (which makes them` more efficient). They also blow some of their air around the outside of the main engine, "bypassing" the core completely and producing a backdraft of air like a propeller. In other words, a turbofan produces thrust partly like a turbojet and partly like a turboprop. Low-bypass turbofans send virtually all their air through the core, while high-bypass ones send more air around it. A measurement called the bypass ratio tells you how much air (by weight) goes through the engine core or around it; in a high-bypass engine, the ratio might be 10:1, which means 10 times more air passes around than through the core. Impressive power and efficiency make turbofans the engines of choice on everything from passenger jets (typically using high-bypass) to jet fighters (low-bypass). The bypass design also cools a jet engine and makes it quieter. Read more about turbofans from NASA.

Ramjets and scramjets

Photo: A Pegasus ramjet/scramjet engine developed for space planes in 1999. Photo by courtesy of NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center.

Jet engines scoop air in at speed so, in theory, if you designed the inlet as a rapidly tapering nozzle, you could make it compress the incoming air automatically, without either a compressor or a turbine to power it. Engines that work this way are called ramjets, and since they need the air to be traveling fast, are really suitable only for supersonic and hypersonic (faster-than-sound) planes. Air moving faster than sound as it enters the engine is compressed and slowed down dramatically, to subsonic speeds, mixed with fuel, and ignited by a device called a flame holder, producing a rocket-like exhaust similar to that made by a classic turbojet. Ramjets tend to be used on rocket and missile engines but since they "breathe" air, they cannot be used in space. Scramjets are similar, except that the supersonic air doesn't slow down anything like as much as it speeds through the engine. By remaining supersonic, the air exits at much higher speed, allowing the plane to go considerably faster than one powered by a ramjet (theoretically, up to Mach 15, or 15 times the speed of sound-in the "high hypersonic" region). Read more about ramjets and scramjets from NASA.

Chart: Modern jet engines are about 100 times more powerful than the ones invented by Frank Whittle and his German rival Hans von Ohain. The red block shows the GE90, currently the world's most powerful engine. In the timeline below, you can discover how engines developed-and the engineering brains behind them.

A brief history of jet engines

~1800s: Using simple models, English inventor Sir George Cayley (1773-1857) figures out the basic design and operation of the modern, wing-lifted airplane. Unfortunately, the only practical power source available during his lifetime is the coal-powered steam engine, which is too big, heavy, and inefficient to power a plane.

1860s-1870s: Working independently, French engineers Joseph Étienne Lenoir (1822-1900), German engineer Nikolaus Otto (1832-1891), and Karl Benz develop the modern car engine, which runs on relatively light, clean, energy-rich gasoline-a much more practical fuel than coal.

1884: Englishman Sir Charles Parsons (1854-1931) pioneers steam turbines and compressors, key pieces of technology in future airplane engines.

1903: Bicycle-making brothers Wilbur Wright (1867-1912) and Orville Wright (1871-1948) make the first powered flight using a gas engine to power two propellers fixed to the wings of a simple biplane.

1908: Frenchman René Lorin (1877-1933) invents the ramjet-the simplest possible jet engine.

1910: Henri-Marie Coandă (1885-1972), born in Romania but mostly working in France, builds the world's first jet-like plane, the Coandă-1910, powered by a large air fan instead of a propeller.

1914: US space pioneer Robert Hutchings Goddard (1882-1945) is granted his first two patents describing liquid-fueled, multi-stage rockets-ideas that will, many years later, help fire people into space.

1925: Pratt & Whitney (now one of the world's biggest aero-engine makers) builds its first engine, the nine-cylinder Wasp.

1928: German engineer Alexander Lippisch (1894-1976) puts rocket engines on an experimental glider to make the world's first rocket plane, the Lippisch Ente.

1926: British engineer Alan Griffith (1893-1963) proposes using gas turbine engines to power airplanes in a classic paper titled An Aerodynamic Theory of Turbine Design. This work makes Griffith, in effect, the theoretical father of the jet engine (his many contributions include figuring out that a jet engine compressor needs to use curved airfoil blades rather than ones with a simple, flat profile). Griffith later becomes a pioneer of turbojets, turbofans, and vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft as the Chief Scientist to Rolls-Royce, one of the world's leading aircraft engine makers.

1928: Aged only 21, English engineer Frank Whittle (1907-1996) designs a jet engine, but the British military (and Alan Griffith, their consultant) refuse to take his ideas seriously. Whittle is forced to set up his own company and develop his ideas by himself. By 1937, he builds the first modern jet engine, but only as a ground-based prototype.

1936: Whittle invents and files a patent for the bypass turbofan engine.

1933-1939: Hans von Ohain (1911-1998), Whittle's German rival, simultaneously designs jet engines with compressors and turbines. His HeS 3B engine, designed in 1938, powers the Heinkel He-178 on its maiden flight as the world's first turbojet airplane on August 27, 1939.

1951: US aerospace engineer Charles Kaman (1919-2011) builds the first helicopter with a gas-turbine engine, the K-225.

2002: General Electric's GE90-115B turbofan becomes the world's most powerful engine, with a maximum thrust of 569kN (127,900 lbf).

2019: The General Electric GE9X, based on the GE90, uses a high bypass ratio of 10:1, fewer fan blades, and better materials to deliver 10 percent better fuel efficiency and 5 percent lower fuel consumption with less noise and fewer emissions. It produces significantly less thrust, however (around 470kN or 105,000 lbf).

Find out more

On this website

On other websites

Books

For older readers

For younger readers

Air and Space Travel by Chris Woodford, Facts on File, 2004. This is my own 96-page introduction to the history of air and space travel; the invention of the jet engine was a crucial bridge between the two. Suitable for young teens.

Super Jumbo Jets: Inside and Out by Holly Cefrey, PowerPlus Books/Rosen, 2002. This book goes into just enough technical detail for younger readers, covering different types of jet engines, as well as broader details of how big planes stay in the sky. Suitable for ages 9-12.

Articles

Reinventing the Jet Engine: The Guardian, September 27, 2017. A fun, interactive page that explores some of the cutting-edge technical improvements now being made to jet engines.

Boeing Patents Laser Nuclear Fusion Jet Engine by Evan Ackerman. IEEE Spectrum, July 10, 2015. Are nuclear powered planes remotely feasible? Yes, according to this Boeing patent.

Watch GE Test Its Jet Engines by Putting Them Through Hell by Alexander George. Wired, November 27, 2014. How do you test an engine against water, ice, bird strikes, and snapping blades?

An Airline Fleet Fueled by Natural Gas by Matthew L. Wald. The New York Times, October 25, 2012. Can we make planes cleaner and greener by running their engines on natural gas?

Electric Arcs to Quiet Jets by Saswato R Das. IEEE Spectrum. August 1, 2004. How engineers are trying to redesign the airflow through engines to make them quieter.

Biggest Jet Engine by Paul Eisenstein. Three-page article in Popular Science, July 2004. How the drive for faster, more economical, and quieter jet engines is making them even bigger.

21st-century Hot Jet Engines by Stuart F. Brown. Popular Science, June 1990. How engineers are trying to perfect engines with double the thrust.

Patents

I find it fascinating to explore inventors' ideas in their own words (and diagrams)-which is something you can do very easily by browsing patents. Here are a few I've selected that cover various types of jet engines:

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How do jet engines work? | Types of jet engine compared

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by Chris Woodford. Last updated: August 24, 2020. Turn your eyes to the sky and it's likely you'll see more than a few vapor trails-the wispy white lines that jet planes scribble on the great blue canvas stretched above our heads.

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How does a jet engine work?

NEW!
"How a Jet Engine Works" video.

We take for granted how easily a plane weighing over half a million pounds lifts off the ground with such ease. How does it happen? The answer is simple. It's engines.

Let Theresa Benyo of NASA Glenn Research Center explain more...

As featured on NASA's Destination Tomorrow.

Jet engines move the airplane forward with a great force that is produced by a tremendous thrust and causes the plane to fly very fast.

All jet engines, which are also called gas turbines, work on the same principle. The engine sucks air in at the front with a fan. A compressor raises the pressure of the air. The compressor is made with many blades attached to a shaft. The blades spin at high speed and compress or squeeze the air. The compressed air is then sprayed with fuel and an electric spark lights the mixture. The burning gases expand and blast out through the nozzle, at the back of the engine. As the jets of gas shoot backward, the engine and the aircraft are thrust forward. As the hot air is going to the nozzle, it passes through another group of blades called the turbine. The turbine is attached to the same shaft as the compressor. Spinning the turbine causes the compressor to spin.

The image below shows how the air flows through the engine. The air goes through the core of the engine as well as around the core. This causes some of the air to be very hot and some to be cooler. The cooler air then mixes with the hot air at the engine exit area.

This is a picture of how the air flows through an engine
What is Thrust?

Thrust is the forward force that pushes the engine and, therefore, the airplane forward. Sir Isaac Newton discovered that for "every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." An engine uses this principle. The engine takes in a large volume of air. The air is heated and compressed and slowed down. The air is forced through many spinning blades. By mixing this air with jet fuel, the temperature of the air can be as high as three thousand degrees. The power of the air is used to turn the turbine. Finally, when the air leaves, it pushes backward out of the engine. This causes the plane to move forward.

Parts of a Jet Engine

Fan - The fan is the first component in a turbofan. The large spinning fan sucks in large quantities of air. Most blades of the fan are made of titanium. It then speeds this air up and splits it into two parts. One part continues through the "core" or center of the engine, where it is acted upon by the other engine components.

The second part "bypasses" the core of the engine. It goes through a duct that surrounds the core to the back of the engine where it produces much of the force that propels the airplane forward. This cooler air helps to quiet the engine as well as adding thrust to the engine.

Compressor - The compressor is the first component in the engine core. The compressor is made up of fans with many blades and attached to a shaft. The compressor squeezes the air that enters it into progressively smaller areas, resulting in an increase in the air pressure. This results in an increase in the energy potential of the air. The squashed air is forced into the combustion chamber.

Combustor - In the combustor the air is mixed with fuel and then ignited. There are as many as 20 nozzles to spray fuel into the airstream. The mixture of air and fuel catches fire. This provides a high temperature, high-energy airflow. The fuel burns with the oxygen in the compressed air, producing hot expanding gases. The inside of the combustor is often made of ceramic materials to provide a heat-resistant chamber. The heat can reach 2700°.

Turbine - The high-energy airflow coming out of the combustor goes into the turbine, causing the turbine blades to rotate. The turbines are linked by a shaft to turn the blades in the compressor and to spin the intake fan at the front. This rotation takes some energy from the high-energy flow that is used to drive the fan and the compressor. The gases produced in the combustion chamber move through the turbine and spin its blades. The turbines of the jet spin around thousands of times. They are fixed on shafts which have several sets of ball-bearing in between them.

Nozzle - The nozzle is the exhaust duct of the engine. This is the engine part which actually produces the thrust for the plane. The energy depleted airflow that passed the turbine, in addition to the colder air that bypassed the engine core, produces a force when exiting the nozzle that acts to propel the engine, and therefore the airplane, forward. The combination of the hot air and cold air are expelled and produce an exhaust, which causes a forward thrust. The nozzle may be preceded by a mixer, which combines the high temperature air coming from the engine core with the lower temperature air that was bypassed in the fan. The mixer helps to make the engine quieter.

The First Jet Engine - A Short History of Early Engines

Sir Isaac Newton in the 18th century was the first to theorize that a rearward-channeled explosion could propel a machine forward at a great rate of speed. This theory was based on his third law of motion. As the hot air blasts backwards through the nozzle the plane moves forward.

Henri Giffard built an airship which was powered by the first aircraft engine, a three-horse power steam engine. It was very heavy, too heavy to fly.

In 1874, Felix de Temple, built a monoplane that flew just a short hop down a hill with the help of a coal fired steam engine.

Otto Daimler, in the late 1800's invented the first gasoline engine.

In 1894, American Hiram Maxim tried to power his triple biplane with two coal fired steam engines. It only flew for a few seconds.

The early steam engines were powered by heated coal and were generally much too heavy for flight.

American Samuel Langley made a model airplanes that were powered by steam engines. In 1896, he was successful in flying an unmanned airplane with a steam-powered engine, called the Aerodrome. It flew about 1 mile before it ran out of steam. He then tried to build a full sized plane, the Aerodrome A, with a gas powered engine. In 1903, it crashed immediately after being launched from a house boat.

In 1903, the Wright Brothers flew, The Flyer, with a 12 horse power gas powered engine.

From 1903, the year of the Wright Brothers first flight, to the late 1930s the gas powered reciprocating internal-combustion engine with a propeller was the sole means used to propel aircraft.

It was Frank Whittle , a British pilot, who designed and patented the first turbo jet engine in 1930. The Whittle engine first flew successfully in May, 1941. This engine featured a multistage compressor, and a combustion chamber, a single stage turbine and a nozzle.

At the same time that Whittle was working in England, Hans von Ohain was working on a similar design in Germany. The first airplane to successfully use a gas turbine engine was the German Heinkel He 178, in August, 1939. It was the world's first turbojet powered flight.

General Electric built the first American jet engine for the US Army Air Force jet plane . It was the XP-59A experimental aircraft that first flew in October, 1942.

Types of Jet Engines

Turbojets

The basic idea of the turbojet engine is simple. Air taken in from an opening in the front of the engine is compressed to 3 to 12 times its original pressure in compressor. Fuel is added to the air and burned in a combustion chamber to raise the temperature of the fluid mixture to about 1,100°F to 1,300° F. The resulting hot air is passed through a turbine, which drives the compressor. If the turbine and compressor are efficient, the pressure at the turbine discharge will be nearly twice the atmospheric pressure, and this excess pressure is sent to the nozzle to produce a high-velocity stream of gas which produces a thrust. Substantial increases in thrust can be obtained by employing an afterburner. It is a second combustion chamber positioned after the turbine and before the nozzle. The afterburner increases the temperature of the gas ahead of the nozzle. The result of this increase in temperature is an increase of about 40 percent in thrust at takeoff and a much larger percentage at high speeds once the plane is in the air.

The turbojet engine is a reaction engine. In a reaction engine, expanding gases push hard against the front of the engine. The turbojet sucks in air and compresses or squeezes it. The gases flow through the turbine and make it spin. These gases bounce back and shoot out of the rear of the exhaust, pushing the plane forward.

Picture of Turbojet Engine

Turboprops

A turboprop engine is a jet engine attached to a propeller. The turbine at the back is turned by the hot gases, and this turns a shaft that drives the propeller. Some small airliners and transport aircraft are powered by turboprops.

Like the turbojet, the turboprop engine consists of a compressor, combustion chamber, and turbine, the air and gas pressure is used to run the turbine, which then creates power to drive the compressor. Compared with a turbojet engine, the turboprop has better propulsion efficiency at flight speeds below about 500 miles per hour. Modern turboprop engines are equipped with propellers that have a smaller diameter but a larger number of blades for efficient operation at much higher flight speeds. To accommodate the higher flight speeds, the blades are scimitar-shaped with swept-back leading edges at the blade tips. Engines featuring such propellers are called propfans.

Picture of turboprop engine
Turbofans

A turbofan engine has a large fan at the front, which sucks in air. Most of the air flows around the outside of the engine, making it quieter and giving more thrust at low speeds. Most of today's airliners are powered by turbofans. In a turbojet all the air entering the intake passes through the gas generator, which is composed of the compressor, combustion chamber, and turbine. In a turbofan engine only a portion of the incoming air goes into the combustion chamber. The remainder passes through a fan, or low-pressure compressor, and is ejected directly as a "cold" jet or mixed with the gas-generator exhaust to produce a "hot" jet. The objective of this sort of bypass system is to increase thrust without increasing fuel consumption. It achieves this by increasing the total air-mass flow and reducing the velocity within the same total energy supply.

Picture of Turbofan Engine
Turboshafts

This is another form of gas-turbine engine that operates much like a turboprop system. It does not drive a propellor. Instead, it provides power for a helicopter rotor. The turboshaft engine is designed so that the speed of the helicopter rotor is independent of the rotating speed of the gas generator. This permits the rotor speed to be kept constant even when the speed of the generator is varied to modulate the amount of power produced.
Picture of Turboshaft Engine
Ramjets

The ramjet is the most simple jet engine and has no moving parts. The speed of the jet "rams" or forces air into the engine. It is essentially a turbojet in which rotating machinery has been omitted. Its application is restricted by the fact that its compression ratio depends wholly on forward speed. The ramjet develops no static thrust and very little thrust in general below the speed of sound. As a consequence, a ramjet vehicle requires some form of assisted takeoff, such as another aircraft. It has been used primarily in guided-missile systems. Space vehicles use this type of jet.
Picture of Ramjet Engine
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How does a jet engine work? What are the parts of the engine? Are there many types of engines?

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How does a plane fly? How is a plane controlled? What are the regimes of flight?