One plane, 2 different engines

[McWigglebum4th]

If sir pops down to his local airbus dealer one can spec a A380 with Rolls Royce engines or something an american made


If i have an A380 with american engines how much work is it to fit it with proper british engines?

[Eric Mc]

Why would you want to change?

Surely you would buy the plane with the engines you wanted in the first place?

[Mr_C]

The option is the Engine Alliance GP7000 series

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engine_Alliance_GP7...

It would be a lot of work to fit different engines, and an awful lot of money.

[Eric Mc]

There would need to be massive changes to all the ancilliary engine management systems not to mention pumps, generators etc. You just wouldn't do it.

[anonymous-user]

Pumps and gennies tend to come already bolted to the engine. They're supplied pretty much as a "unit" ready to bolt on as far as possible. Keeps it simple that way.
Still a daft idea though.

[Eric Mc]

With modern aircraft systems I'm sure there would be massive software changes required too.

[Sheepshanks]

I have no idea about 'planes specifically, but in industry you always try and second-source stuff if at all possible.

They might not exactly be plug and play but I'd be amazed if Airbus haven't insisted on a lot of compatibility between the two suppliers.

[S3_Graham]

Crossflow Kid said:

Pumps and gennies tend to come already bolted to the engine. They're supplied pretty much as a "unit" ready to bolt on as far as possible. Keeps it simple that way.
Still a daft idea though.

depends on the airframe.

Ours come bare which is a royal PITA.

[V8 Fettler]

McWigglebum4th said:

If sir pops down to his local airbus dealer one can spec a A380 with Rolls Royce engines or something an american made


If i have an A380 with american engines how much work is it to fit it with proper british engines?

Might be easier to part-ex. Is there any outstanding finance ... ?

[McWigglebum4th]

Sheepshanks said:

I have no idea about 'planes specifically, but in industry you always try and second-source stuff if at all possible.

They might not exactly be plug and play but I'd be amazed if Airbus haven't insisted on a lot of compatibility between the two suppliers.

That is what i am wondering if they are plug and play or lets build a new plane as it is cheaper

[Condi]

Mr_C said:

The option is the Engine Alliance GP7000 series

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engine_Alliance_GP7...

It would be a lot of work to fit different engines, and an awful lot of money.

Not really? You can get American or RR engines supplied by the factory. I doubt there is huge amounts of work to change one from the other, and its not unknown (on older aircraft, probably not the 380 yet) for engines to be replaced with newer ones of a different manufacturer.

[Eric Mc]

That is very, very rarely at the behest of a single customer. Re-engining programmes have been carried out usually because legislation is changing, making an older engine impossible to use (usually linked to noise or emission regulations). The other driver is economics. Older engines tend to be less fuel efficient.

The big re-engine programmes that happened in the past were the re-engining of the USAF KC-135 fleet - which had its old J-57 turbojets replaced with JT3D or CFM-56 turbofans. Hundreds of aircraft were upgraded. The other big re-engining project was the replacement of the older technology JT3D turbofans on the DC-8 61/62/63 family to CFM-56s - turning.them into DC-8 71/72s and 73s.

[eccles]

S3_Graham said:

Crossflow Kid said:

Pumps and gennies tend to come already bolted to the engine. They're supplied pretty much as a "unit" ready to bolt on as far as possible. Keeps it simple that way.
Still a daft idea though.

depends on the airframe.

Ours come bare which is a royal PITA.

That's my experience as well. When I worked airliners if we had to do an engine change then the replacement engine was invariably 'undressed'. Gennnies, pumps etc had to be swapped. Sometimes thrust reversers had to be reconfigured to match the position the engine was going to be fitted.

[Testaburger]

It's a big old affair. I suspect the refit costs will nearly always outnumber the cost savings of a newer, different engine.

Even jets delivered from the factory with say RR engines instead of P & W have subtle performance characteristics.

As an example, the 777-200/300 software was originally designed with the Pratt engines in mind, and as a consequence, the drag profiles don't 'quite' match up with the RR engines installed. On an idle descent, following the programmed descent path, it will always be a few knots faster than selected speed when descending above 20,000ft, and transition to being a few knots slow below said altitude.

Very small differences, but they exist, nonetheless.

[anonymous-user]

On a B787 the GEnX and RR Trent 1000 have a standard interface so it's very simple to change one for another.