How Many Engines Do Airliners Go Through In A Typical Lifespan?

How Many Engines Do Airliners Go Through In A Typical Lifespan? To answer what seems to be a relatively simple question, it is essential to understand the factors that define the life of an airliner and a jet engine. Airliners and jet engines are complex machines whose lifespan is difficult to determine in absolute flight cycles, flight hours, or operational years. Like any other machine, the manufacturers build them with a specific design limit. However, the actual lifespan depends on usage, operating conditions, and maintenance. Before getting into the specifics, here is a brief look into the lifespan of airliners and engines.
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[@gpaull2]

I’ve signed out 737-200’s with over 102,000 hours and over 85,000 cycles. Figure out how many YEARS that is in the air and you’ll be truly amazed at just how awesome these aircraft were in their 30+ years of flying.

[@anomaly_echelon7994]

That's really impressive, never thought 737's could last that long. I wonder how that compares to the oldest B-52s that's still in service.

[@EppleyAviation]

Assuming 102k hrs and 85k cycles, that would be approximately 11.6 years and an average of 1.2 hrs per flight.

[@dba750]

Wow merican, good on you not. This vlog isn't about you

[@Nalla328]

That’s awesome. Thanks for sharing!

[@Mryodamiles]

@@dba750 what?

[@502Aviation]

Here is one example I know of. In 2017 N401UP, a 757-200 flying for UPS, celebrated 30 years flying for the airline. I don't know how many flight hours the plane had racked up, but it was stated that the aircraft had gone through a total of 19 Pratt & Whitney PW2000 engines.

[@markvanslyke294]

wow, I wonder why such a higher replacement frequency than commercial carriers... ...doesn't UPS run them about as much as commercial carriers just night time ops instead of day?

[@502Aviation]

@@markvanslyke294 They run them during the day as well. A UPS 757 will fly as many as 4 times in one day.

[@8138don]

19 PW2000s strikes me as an odd number, no pun, I would have thought engine change outs would have been done as pairs.. Perhaps not.

[@InquisitiveBaldMan]

@@8138don If your new set is a week old when a bird goes into one, you're just getting the one....

[@johniii8147]

@@markvanslyke294 No they have much fewer cycles typically. Basically to from the hub to the out station and back in most cases. That's why they can operate much older aircraft profitably.

[@stebnalang2824]

In a previous life I was a aircraft mechanic in the U.S. Air Force. I worked on fighter jets and it was not uncommon to replace an engine every year. You did mention in the video that militaries purchase spares so they engines can be replaced more frequently than on commercial aircraft, but I think it is important to note that on on military aircraft it is often easier and faster to replace an engine rather than spend the time to troubleshoot the issue and wait for spare parts to arrive.

[@arnevandemaele7445]

Wouldn't it be more cost efficient to still order the spare parts and refurbish the used engine. Seems pretty wastefull to completely change an engine if for example a fuel pressure valve went out 🤷

[@oadka]

@@arnevandemaele7445 I know from credible sources that the US Navy does in fact refurbish engines.

[@k53847]

@@oadka They do some repair work at the aircraft intermediate maintenance department on a carrier or base. Past a certain point they send it to the maintenance deports at North Island etc for more complex or time consuming repairs. I suspect USAF does something similar.

[@larrybremer4930]

Yes its common for military hardware and expensive parts to be refurbished. Usually its front line, 2nd and 3rd service echelons that handle basic maintenance and consumable or wear items and also diagnose issues to a sub assembly like an engine needing overhaul or faulty circuit card. Those items are then sent on to 4th and 5th echelon facilities where full overhauls, rebuilds, and upgrades occur. The military would not throw out jet engine cores because they hit a deep service interval or fault determination. Sure it costs millions to overhaul a jet engine, but costs 10s of millions to procure a new one, so its more economical to maintain the engines than replace them.

[@MrJeffmaster1000]

@@arnevandemaele7445 I worked in what’s called O level maintenance. We would remove and replace an engine if there was a problem that we couldn’t fix. The old engine gets sent off to another level to get taken apart and fixed. So while the aircraft might go through more engines the old engines aren’t necessarily going to waste

[@oxigenarian9763]

Engine life was WAY more than I expected. A tribute to the engineering that goes into them...

[@charlottelanvin7095]

Age is not a question. Aside from LLP, if you spend enough on parts you can restore an engine's performance to very close what it was brand new and this expense is balanced against efficiency gains. Meanwhile the aircraft itself is ageing, its cabin needs refreshing, passengers expect wifi and IFE and overhead storage. Aircraft are never retired because the engines are tired

[@craigg4246]

I was the director of maintenance for a small air charter company. We had one aircraft, piston powered, that was on it’s 13th engine when I retired.

[@stargazer2504]

Same. I think the TTAF was about 8000 on the B55 and it went through many engines (TBO was what? 2000 hrs?) and then the pilot crashed it- total loss (which didn't take much) (and no injuries).

[@UncleKennysPlace]

The company that pays my bills makes large turbofan engines. Number of cycles is far more important than hours turning: some of our identical-to-flight-engine cores are used for power generation. Hundreds of thousands of hours between overhauls is normal. Small engines, such as the HF120 in the HondaJet, will likely "cycle out" before any true wear issues surface.

[@peterkotara]

Thank you. I have been wanting to know this for a very long time.

[@JxH]

My 1972 Dodge Dart went through two 225ci Slant-6 engines during its lifespan.

[@johniii8147]

We'll it's a dodge, so no surprise there it needed a engine replacement.

[@two6520]

For once a good video. Good job!

[@GarrettWorcester]

My guess was three engines per lifespan, so I was in the ballpark (or the ballpark's parking lot). I can't begin to wrap my head around how massive an undertaking this must be for airlines, especially the unsung heroes who perform the overhauls - a tip of the hat to them!

[@timmanboy1]

The Rolls Royce AE3007 engines I worked on for the Embraer 145 had a 4000 flight hour before overhaul cycle

[@edwardwilcox6606]

RR hold the world record for hours on the wing with an RB211 5 series on a B757.

[@adamlee3772]

As a mechanical engineer, with no involvement with airliners except when the company send me somewhere, I’d say this is a vague video but still interesting.

[@upthewahs_wahsontop]

Cool

[@paulwolf8444]

It seems to be an acceptable amount both financially to keep prices respectable and frequent enough so that we have faith that there is good maintenance for safety.

[@JustRememberWhoYoureWorkingFor]

I didn't know the engine overhaul interval was progressively getting shorter after each one, I thought it was constant and fixed

[@PavlosPapageorgiou]

2:05 I think this sentence means engine overhauls get progressively more frequent.

[@miceinoz1181]

This video could be construed to mean that a large commercial aircraft would need 3 sets of engines over its typical life, however modern engines are modular, so some modules last longer than others and are not replaced as frequently as others, for example, the fan module may undergo many repairs while a hot section module may be overhauled and repaired a number of times in the same period of the fan module. This makes the very question you raise a moving target really.

[@custos3249]

Misread that as "How many engineers do air...." Still accurate.

[@macbook802]

Fords goes through 3-4 engines in their lifespans as well

[@thomasburke7995]

TIME or Hours of operation then add environmental conditions really determines when an engine will be TBO'ed.. I know FEDERAL EXPRESS did a 2/3rds on all the jt8's and they used actually time and not cycles before an overhaul.

[@yoog]

I have changed over 200 Trent 1000s and around 40 Trent 900s so I'd say that go through loads and loads

[@jamesread11]

I’d love to know the flight cycles of the B2 spirit, that thing is expensive to run

[@damienkramer]

I’d like to know exactly how that cost per flight hour is calculated, it would be really interesting to know what sort of things make it expensive, unclassified of course :)

[@bennyattar8862]

A lot of peopke who aren't supposed to know would also love to know that.

[@woutergijs5246]

It is one of the 2 engine questions I asked myself. The other is why no new type of engines are installed on older bodies.

[@johniii8147]

It's just not economically viable too your second question. It's been considered numerous times with older commercial aircraft, but the costs of certification of the engine and airframe, required changes to the existing airframe etc have not proven worth it. You can't just swap on an off a new type of engine. It's only been found worthwhile on some military aircraft. Even with an aircraft with multiple engine options, you can't replace say a CFM engine with a PW one (ie 320NEO. Simply too many differences in the airframe itself for each.

[@tommyjenkins7453]

They are, it's quite common

[@johniii8147]

@@tommyjenkins7453 Not at. It doesn't happen on commercial airplanes that a new generation of engines are installed on an existing used airframes. They do swap outs of course of the existing engine type.

[@yobringitondown5565]

The Boeing 737 is a great example. Designed in the 60’s, Boeing has repeatedly re-engineered the aircraft to accept a variety of newer, more powerful and more fuel efficient engines. They began flying them in the 80’s. I can’t think of any commercial aircraft that has been upgraded as much as that one. It’s a very nice airframe

[@macky4074]

A321 neo (new engine option) pretty sure there is an A330 neo, the 737 has been re-engined multiple times and the b52 is either being or has just been re-engined. I'm sure there is plenty other examples.

[@Kosahdus]

CFM56-5C have had over 56000 flight hours on wing and it’s not the record on A340-300. Engines are on condition well monitored. Some parts in jet engines are frequently replaced. ETOPS will also make own maintenance more expensive depending of ETOPS time on use.

[@davidorth4906]

5.

[@grahamcook9289]

What about tyres and brake pads?

[@digiviceking]

if the airlines use RR Trent 1000s, there will be more engine replacements

[@rafaelwilks]

GEnx rules 😍

[@edwardwilcox6606]

Trent 1000`s did have major problems but RR have addressed these faults & for the last couple of years are reliable again.

[@edwardwilcox6606]

@@rafaelwilks As with the Trent 1000 GEnx hasn`t been without faults which admittedly haven`t been so severe, but if you took the time to research you`d be aware of the problems. I would imagine these two turbines are pretty well sorted by now & while it`s true GEnx has a bigger share on B787 this was always expected as the US airlines would always choose the US made engine over another. RR`s share is still doing well considering the earlier problems with Lufthansa placing a big order for RR power, & it will be interesting to see who Emirates choose for their huge Dreamliner order.

[@stevenlemieux7220]

I think your numbers are a little off. you stated the airframe for a widebody was 44,000 to 64,000 cycles. if this is true than the TWA flight 800 had some 93,000 cycles which pooves that TWA took care of their 747's and there was never any frayed wires and no so called 3,000 feet climb. I hope to see a story from simple flying in the near future.

[@jort93z]

"in the end of life phase it is common for engines to be installed on smaller type variants to be operated at lower thrust levels" Is this true? I've never heard of this. Do they take crappy used engines out of 777-300ER's and put them into 777-200's or something? I don't really see how it is worth it to put an engine in its end of life phase into a different airliner...

[@alexmelia8873]

I can’t see that working. Our shorter planes have different engines with different thrust levels. Sure they could swap the components and turn it into a different engine but that seems redundant

[@johniii8147]

No it's not true.

[@stevenholt1867]

The BAC One Eleven engines seem to last forever. Rolls Royce Spey.

[@patrickshaw8595]

The 66 passenger fighter jet. And I will never forget the "crack" in it's exhaust tone whenever high power and sub-zero air temps coincided.

[@ericd1934]

What is the benefit of occasionally rotating the engines on a given plane? Since those engines are going to get used on another plane anyway.

[@johnmeye]

It’s the same as rotating tires, oh, I don’t know what the heck I’m talking about

[@alexmelia8873]

If the engine needs work they can pull it off and put another engine on to get the plane back in service and send the engine out for repair and then when it comes back it’ll be on backup status for another plane

[@johniii8147]

They "rotate" when an engine needs service so the airframe can continue service. Happens all the time if there is a problem that can't be fixed on wing.

[@frankmazzaferro8331]

Now the A220 we change engines almost every week

[@x808drifter]

Didn't know military aircraft where "airliners".

[@md11b777]

Thanks to poster who pointed out my monthly engine lease rate was not correct.

[@sailaab]

Meanwhile, most humans in the past century and now have had THE SAME heart.. working all their life.. with ever ongoing repairs, upkeep though. . And prior to that.. in the millennium gone by.. ALL had the same set of heart throughout their lifespan.

[@bennyattar8862]

Works at much lower temperature.

[@locosk8er]

yoo

[@nutandboltguy3720]

I was told some airliner’s could go the entire life without an engine change.

[@johnnyllooddte3415]

we used to run 2 intl airlines.. 3 or 4 sets per aircraft.. thats insane.. try 10 or 20.. we rotate engines in and out of aircraft almost daily.. any individual plane can have 2 or 3 different sets a year

[@damienkramer]

To be fair I think the numbers offered are deliberately conservative and based off one set of possible criteria. Aircraft operators are of course free to make their own choices on when to replace/rotate engines. If I were to speculate I would suggest that perhaps some have arrangements with the engine manufacturers to cycle engines more frequently to keep them in tip-top condition.

[@johniii8147]

That wouldn't be the norm for modern aircraft unless there a known issue with a given engine that makes it less reliable.

[@johnmeye]

Actually, less than expected

[@GWAYGWAY1]

Makes my continental c90 look pathetic needing cylinder work every couple of years at 100 hours , poor design and crappy materials coupled to 1940 specs oils etc. Need more work than flying. They make a modern car look fantastic being like a 1940 basic car with a rebore needed at 20000 miles nowadays car leasing easy 200, 000 miles with just oil changes.

[@MeaHeaR]

ÕMĞ 4ôúř thátt wáż é PôWéŘ-PhÛľĽ

[@pg41226]

Embraer e2 after one year: 45938 engines 😂

[@damienkramer]

Sounds like I should either invest or short Pratt stock depending on why they need so many 😂

[@anjanmukherjee01]

Meanwhile Ferrari F1 car need new engine per 300km 😏

[@gredangeo]

Based on these ticket prices, I thought it was an engine per month. :/

[@kinkymonkey5815]

Fighter jets but not private jets?? Thats an area I would have been interested in to know the differences ...!

[@arsenaldailygaming8316]

please pin i big fan

[@blackmusik109]

Would you say you're a turbofan 😂

[@marcusianaviation9372]

​@@blackmusik109 Get out of here 😂

[@hingholo8027]

@@blackmusik109 high bypass

[@blackmusik109]

@@hingholo8027 not even geared? Lmao

[@arsenaldailygaming8316]

@@blackmusik109 yes jamal

[@ianendangan7462]

Make an engine made by toyota and let us see how long it last.

[@texasabbott]

Toyota has yet to make a jet engine for aircraft. They had designed and build a gas-turbine car in the 1970's. Honda and GE have a joint venture engine. The HF120 is a GE Honda low-maintenance turbofan for small business jets. Late production engines last 5000 hours between overhauls.

[@johniii8147]

They are not in that business.

[@pmfx65]

I doubt the life expectancy of the B787! If you take in account how horrible there wings decompose I think very soon they will have to be retired in masses.

[@tomjardine100]

Jet engines are very simple and reliable. Car engines are actually more complicated

[@johniii8147]

Not true at all.

[@redcat9436]

@@johniii8147 Turbine engines have fewer moving parts than a recip.

[@MaynardFreek]

Corporate welfare is how these manufacturers make their money

[@johniii8147]

Actually they make their money from maintenance and power by the hour contracts.

[@johnmorehead5008]

Zero because they are rebuilt. No "new" engine goes in unless they engine can not be rebuilt

[@jamiesworld1690]

All these aircraft that are dangerous in the world keep crashing they need constant changing at least obxe a month because they ho through millions of flights more its get used more it gets worn out making it more dangerous everything it flies so better safe so needs fixing on a daily basis and change engine rmevrry nonth

[@johniii8147]

You're not living in the real world.

[@dlp4183]

I think you might be having a stroke

[@heidirabenau511]

What white stuff are you on?

[@watsisbuttndo829]

Drugs are bad mmkay.

[@robpeabo509]

I doubt even using grammar in your post would make it understood by others as anything other than a jumble of words put together with no particular intent to say anything constructive. My comments may be harsh, however if you are going to post something, even something off topic or just plain ridiculous; at least attempt to make some sort of sense.

[@damsom1431]

Of course Boeing aircraft use 10x more engines than Airbus on average. Another win for Airbus.

[@bringbackmd7579]

Your insight and knowledge of aviation is astonishing.!!! With the intellect of comments like yours, we can only hope new viewers won't be so judgemental, and think all comments on this site are as pointless as yours !!!

[@mathewk3883]

Based on what hard data?

[@andrewdrone]

Report him for misinformation, just look at the comment history

[@arnenelson4495]

BS

[@dave8599]

A bird may go through an engine, but not a jetliner.