What are engines?

Introduction
You look up in the sky at the sound of the airplane as it passes. But have you ever wondered what makes that sound? Is it simply there for no reason? Is it the wind? Today, we will be talking about engines and what they are.

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What are engines?
Engines are the main way the airplane gains speed and acceleration. Without it, the plane would not be able to fly. There are many different types of engines. The most common type of engine is the turbofan engine, used on nowadays modern jetliners. There are other types such as turboprop engines, used on smaller passenger aircraft or small aircraft and there are supersonic engines, used on fight combat aircraft. On the right is a Saab 2000 turboprop engine.

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Power
Turbofan engines generally are much more powerful than turboprop engines as their size is bigger. The build inside the enigne is far more advanced than a turboprop engine. A turboprop Dash 8 Q400 has a cruise speed of 414 mph, while a turbofan Boeing 737 cruises at 583 mph. There is a big difference between each speed.

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Reliability
Turboprop engines are by far less reliable compared to turbofan engines. The effectiveness and well thinking put into out nowadays turbofan engines are what make it better. Although many incidents have occured when involving a turbofan engine malfunctioning in some way, turboprop engines are far less reliable.

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Speed
Turbofan engines can achieve far higher speeds than turboprop engines as said before due to their size and power. As said before, the Dash 8 Q400 example is a very excellent example as it gives you a basic idea of how much speed turboprop engines can generate. Most airlines use planes with turbofan engines as they are faster to transport passengers. This means the more flights that are done per day, the more money they earn.

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Money
As said before, the more flights done per day equals more money. But how? Let's say Air Canada operates flights from Calgary USA to Toronto CA. The flight time is approx 3h 45 min. Let's say one passenger ticket is $1000 average. The plane can seat 100 passengers. $1000 x 100 is $100000 times 6 flights is $600000. A turboprop probably takes 4h 20 min. A turboprop usually seats up to 75 passengers. The formula: $1000 x 75 is $75000 times 5 flights is $375000. With turbofan engines the airline can an extra $225000.

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The big picture
So here are the stats. Turbofan engines are faster than turboprop engines. But we haven't even told you about supersonic engines! It's quite obvious that supersonic engines are fast because of their name. Supersonic engines are used on military and air combat aircraft. They can generate speeds of up to Mach 3. (3 times the speed of sound)

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Going even faster
Supersonic engines were invented in the second half of the 20th century. Though not all supersonic engines were used on military aircraft at that time. The famous Concorde was the first supersonic aircraft ever invented, along with the Soviet Concorde. These supersonic aircraft were able to travel at Mach 2. (Two times the speed of sound)