Winston
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Virgin Orbit's Rocket Launching Jumbo Jet Reminds Us A 747 Can Lug A 5th Engine Under Its Wings
Carrying spare engines externally is an obscure footnote in airliner history, but the 747's ability to do so may represent big unlocked potential.
AUGUST 29, 2018
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...us-a-747-can-lug-a-5th-engine-under-its-wings
You arrive at your gate just ahead of boarding time. A gleaming 747 Jumbo Jet fills the terminal window. You saunter over to take in your marvelous aerial chariot before stepping onboard. You quickly do a double take—there is a 5th engine strapped under one of its wings!
Yes, this really happened, multiple times. The 747 was designed with a so-called '5th pod' capability in which it can lug a spare engine aloft, even on a revenue flight. The aircraft's performance is impacted a bit in this configuration—with fuel economy being the biggest factor—but the aircraft's handling characteristics remain largely the same.
Virgin Orbit aims to use its 747-400 named 'Cosmic Girl' as a first stage launch platform that will ferry its 'LauncherOne' rocket up into the flight levels before sending it and its pricey payload on its way into space. The pylon the company built for the aircraft to accommodate this exciting mission is just entering combined flight testing out of Victorville, California.
Virgin Orbit's use of a 747 was quite ingenious as they were not only able to leverage the jet's outstanding performance, large support network, and weight-lifting abilities, but also its latent provision for attaching a large pylon under its wing as part of the 5th Pod engine ferrying system. In doing so they didn't have to totally re-engineer the aircraft to accommodate a heavy-duty hardpoint.
The 5th Pod system came out of a requirement to move large and expensive jet engines around on short notice and sometimes to remote locales to support fast-moving airline operations. When the 747 was designed there weren't really options for rapidly shipping one of its high-bypass turbofan engines if need be. Instead, it would have to go by sea and land, which could take weeks, sidelining an expensive revenue producing aircraft in the process. But the best aircraft to ship one of the Jumbo Jet's powerplants was another Jumbo Jet. This is where the 5th pod option came into play.
Carrying spare engines externally is an obscure footnote in airliner history, but the 747's ability to do so may represent big unlocked potential.
AUGUST 29, 2018
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...us-a-747-can-lug-a-5th-engine-under-its-wings
You arrive at your gate just ahead of boarding time. A gleaming 747 Jumbo Jet fills the terminal window. You saunter over to take in your marvelous aerial chariot before stepping onboard. You quickly do a double take—there is a 5th engine strapped under one of its wings!
Yes, this really happened, multiple times. The 747 was designed with a so-called '5th pod' capability in which it can lug a spare engine aloft, even on a revenue flight. The aircraft's performance is impacted a bit in this configuration—with fuel economy being the biggest factor—but the aircraft's handling characteristics remain largely the same.
Virgin Orbit aims to use its 747-400 named 'Cosmic Girl' as a first stage launch platform that will ferry its 'LauncherOne' rocket up into the flight levels before sending it and its pricey payload on its way into space. The pylon the company built for the aircraft to accommodate this exciting mission is just entering combined flight testing out of Victorville, California.
Virgin Orbit's use of a 747 was quite ingenious as they were not only able to leverage the jet's outstanding performance, large support network, and weight-lifting abilities, but also its latent provision for attaching a large pylon under its wing as part of the 5th Pod engine ferrying system. In doing so they didn't have to totally re-engineer the aircraft to accommodate a heavy-duty hardpoint.
The 5th Pod system came out of a requirement to move large and expensive jet engines around on short notice and sometimes to remote locales to support fast-moving airline operations. When the 747 was designed there weren't really options for rapidly shipping one of its high-bypass turbofan engines if need be. Instead, it would have to go by sea and land, which could take weeks, sidelining an expensive revenue producing aircraft in the process. But the best aircraft to ship one of the Jumbo Jet's powerplants was another Jumbo Jet. This is where the 5th pod option came into play.
