Qantas ferried an engine on the wing of a 747 (2016)
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Qantas ferried an engine on the wing of a 747 (2016)
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Re: Qantas ferried an engine on the wing of a 747 (2016)
#2No big deal. External payloads seem strange, but 747s have carried much larger ones, such as the Space Shuttle.
Worse things have been carried under wings.[1]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_United_States_Air_Force_n...
Re: Qantas ferried an engine on the wing of a 747 (2016)
#3[deleted]
Re: Qantas ferried an engine on the wing of a 747 (2016)
#4Isn't that an intended standard design use of a 747?
Re: Qantas ferried an engine on the wing of a 747 (2016)
#5What I find interesting is that the plane wings are modular enough to actually do stuff like this. Pretty cool!
Re: Qantas ferried an engine on the wing of a 747 (2016)
#6The ill-fated Boeing 747 flight AI182 (Kanishka) was carrying an extra engine just like this, when it was destroyed over Atlantic ocean by a terrorist bomb attack in June 1985. The presence of the extra engine was investigated as a possible cause of the disaster before conclusive evidence of a bomb explosion was found. (That and another explosion on the ground at Narita, Japan in a container destined for another Air India flight).
[1] https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19850623-...
Re: Qantas ferried an engine on the wing of a 747 (2016)
#7Ok, given its flying just the core, and not the fan, why doesn't it fit in the cargo hold? I mean they wouldn't have to worry about the extra drag/etc in the hold.
It also seems odd that they would do this on a plane carrying commercial passengers since it seems more of an "experimental" modification even if the manufacture has approved it.
Re: Qantas ferried an engine on the wing of a 747 (2016)
#8No big deal. External payloads seem strange, but 747s have carried much larger ones, such as the Space Shuttle. Worse things have been carried under wings.[1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_United_States_Air_Force_n...
> Worse things have been carried under wings.[1]
this one [1] was way scarier, imo D:
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Goldsboro_B-52_crash
Re: Qantas ferried an engine on the wing of a 747 (2016)
#9What I find interesting is that the plane wings are modular enough to actually do stuff like this. Pretty cool!
>the plane wings are modular enough to actually do stuff like this
Not really. The 5th pylon is an original design item and is only on the the left wing. When the 747 first started operating, IIRC there were no cargo aircraft big enough to transport fully assembled 747 engines so there was a real logistical concern about transporting spare and faulty engines to and from far flung destinations. It's kind of a relic of a certain age between the dawn of large turbofan engines but before the growth of the modern aviation industry.
The presence of that 5th pylon does mean some 747 get used for some interesting things. Virgin Orbit launches their rocket from a heavily upgraded 5th pylon.
Re: Qantas ferried an engine on the wing of a 747 (2016)
#10The ill-fated Boeing 747 flight AI182 (Kanishka) was carrying an extra engine just like this, when it was destroyed over Atlantic ocean by a terrorist bomb attack in June 1985. The presence of the extra engine was investigated as a possible cause of the disaster before conclusive evidence of a bomb explosion was found. (That and another explosion on the ground at Narita, Japan in a container destined for another Air…
Wow, "Canadian Sikh terrorists" was not something I was expecting to read about today.