Gliding For 3 Hours In An Airliner? — Tech Ops Forum

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Gliding For 3 Hours In An Airliner?

Domi.ga From Germany, joined Aug 2001, 34 posts, RR: 0
Posted (10 years 9 months 2 weeks 3 days 20 hours ago) and read 1066 times:

Some time ago I had a discussion with a friend. A flight attendant had told him, that a passenger-plane must be able to stay airborne for at least 3 hours even if all engines fail, to get the permission to fly on transatlantic routes. I can not believe this. I'm just a SimPilot, but gliding for 3 hours in a 747 or 777 seems very strange to me...

I heard about a rule saying, that 2engined planes have to reach an airport within 3 hours, if a single engine fails, but that's a different subject...

So, what do you think? How long is an airliner able to stay up in flight with no power left?

5 replies: All unread, jump to last

Max Power From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR:
Reply 1, posted (10 years 9 months 2 weeks 3 days 20 hours ago) and read 1022 times:

Ball Park numbers, you can glide about 30 miles per 10,000 feet of altitude. Just Ball Park Numbers. Cheers, Max

Delta-flyer From United States of America, joined Jul 2001, 2676 posts, RR: 9
Reply 2, posted (10 years 9 months 2 weeks 3 days 20 hours ago) and read 1012 times:

You are correct, your friend is wrong. Twin engine a/c should fly x hours on a single engine, x being the certified value for the type (new twins are 3 hours). This is called ETOPS - Extended Twin-engine Operations -- also known as Engines Turn Or People Swim.

Think about the glide scenario -- if a large jet can glide with a sink rate of no more than, say 1000 ft/min, then you have 30 minutes from 30,000 ft -- far short of 3 hours!

CALPilot From United States of America, joined Oct 1999, 992 posts, RR: 18
Reply 3, posted (10 years 9 months 2 weeks 3 days 14 hours ago) and read 971 times:

What do I think? I think you need to consider the source from which it came. Of course a airliner can't glide for 3 hours! Its the ETOPS rule at 180mins.

Notar520AC From United States of America, joined Jul 2001, 1606 posts, RR: 5
Reply 4, posted (10 years 9 months 2 weeks 2 days 7 hours ago) and read 903 times:

Of course, NOT!

BMW - The Ultimate Driving Machine

OPNLguy From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR:
Reply 5, posted (10 years 9 months 2 weeks 2 days 7 hours ago) and read 899 times:

Whatever you do, don't let the airline bean-counters know about this, or they'll start expecting us to plan/fly the flights up to cruising altitude, and then shutdown all the engines and coast the rest of the 3:00 flight! Big grin