On Wed, Feb 13, 2002 at 12:43:05PM -0600, BERNDT, JON S. (JON) (JSC-EX) (LM) wrote: > > Hilarious. That's right. Why would anyone be on the runway, ready to take > off, with the engine off.
It happens - with multi-engine aircraft anyway. Some years ago a plane (747 I believe) taking off from Tokyo had trouble starting one of the engines. The captain said something to the effect, 'no problem. once we go to full power there will be plenty of air pressure to get the other engine started". They did start the engine as suggested and got partway down the runway before the first stage turbine (somewhere around 200lb spinning at 15000rpm!) literally fell out of the engine. It started digging a hole in the runway before taking off running. Every 10-20 feet it would hit the ground and take a divot out of the runway. Since the runway is built out into Tokyo Bay it soon hit the water. It is estimated that it went about 1/2 mile out, running on the water, before it finally sunk. It was never found. IIRC they had a light load and managed to take off. Be very happy when you hear the engines start up after they close the doors. They aren't wasting fuel, but letting the engine come to thermal equilibrium. -- James (Jay) Treacy [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
