Picture of the Boeing 747-438 aircraft

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A visitor from - posted Fri August 27, 2010: One reason for the additional pod lacking in livery may be that it has come out of long term storage, or it may have been put in a multi airline pool, where one airline (in this case Qantas) would have taken the engine to use for as long as it takes for the damaged engine to be repaired
A visitor from Australia posted Fri May 28, 2010: Sad one
A visitor from Netherlands posted Sun February 28, 2010: It is the same RB211-524H. But it has not the same attachment as the 4 regular engines because it does not need fuel supply because it is a replacement powerplant for another Quantas 747 landed earlier with engine problems.
A visitor from United States posted Thu January 7, 2010: Not even the same rolls royce engine! weird.
A visitor from - posted Mon December 28, 2009: 5th engine on a 747?? I had no idea this was possible, AMAZING! Never seen that before, very good photography too!
A visitor from Australia posted Fri December 25, 2009: Fantastic photo Matt! You are very skilled with your camera, and you have captured a rare event in perfect detail. Bravo!
A visitor from United States posted Fri December 25, 2009: The number 2 engine is probably not reversed to prevent any debris from going into the "5th" engine. It also looks like there might be a white disc over the fan blades of the 5th engine to keep it from turning. I suspect that several hours of turning at high speed might be hard on the engine without the normal oil lubrication.
A visitor from Hong Kong posted Fri December 25, 2009: Some carriers 3-eng ferry their empty a/c back to base, with specially trained usually management pilots, or after an engine change 'Fifth Pod" it back to base for repair on a revenue service with passengers and regular line pilots. The flight has some peformance restictions with the 5th pod, but otherwise handles normally. The engine is normally free to windmill during carriage, and reverse on #3 is at the discretion on the crew depending on the carrier and prevailing conditions.
A visitor from - posted Fri December 25, 2009: The no. 5 engine is being ferried for another aircraft that is grounded until it's replaced.
A visitor from United States posted Fri December 25, 2009: Very interesting, but as others asked, why is there a 5th engine?
A visitor from United States posted Fri December 25, 2009: To Hungarian commenter: no... a 744 landed 2 days earlier w/ an engine failure... they (Quantas) took the engine (the failed one) off and shipped it to Rolls Royce (the maker of these Rb211's), and strapped another one onto the next 744 heading to Sydney... the innermost engine on this side is not running, the other 4 are ... when this plane is de-boarded, they will taxi to the maintenence hangar, take the innermost engine off, and put it on the 744 that had an engine failure... they both flew happily ever after
A visitor from Australia posted Fri December 25, 2009: Hi guys, Basically this aircraft just ferried the additional engine which failed back to be repaired at Qantas Maintenance base.. It was limited to Mach 0.78 due to the extra drag from engine and obviously didn't carry PAX..
A visitor from Australia posted Fri December 25, 2009: Wow, I didn't know they still did that. FYI, this 5th engine is not running. It is simply there because this is the cheapest way to transport a new engine, rather than having to dedicate an extra freight flight just to transport it. In flight, pilots do have to trim the rudder just a little bit to compensate for the extra drag created by this engine. :)
A visitor from Hungary posted Fri December 25, 2009: Such a rare moment Can you guys please elaborate more on this? So the newly-added engine runs instead of the failed engine??
A visitor from United Kingdom posted Fri December 25, 2009: Quite interesting ! 5 engines, but no reverse on #2 because of the #5 we can guess. But look at #3, he seems bigger than the others !
A visitor from - posted Fri December 25, 2009: Now would you see that!.. the no. 2 engine is kept form thrust reversing..
A visitor from - posted Fri December 25, 2009: Great capture! Are my eyes deceiving me or is that 5th engine actually lit?
A visitor from United States posted Fri December 25, 2009: Must have been a rare genetic mutation.
A visitor from United Kingdom posted Fri December 25, 2009: Interesting photo of a very rare sight indeed! However does this addition not lead to an uneven weight distribution on the aircraft?

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