Evolution of Largest Engines

General Electric GE9X

When Boeing came out with its 777, which started flying with the airlines in 1995, its defining feature was its twin-engine design. It was long thought (and regulated as such) that twin-engine aircraft didn’t have enough reserve power to fly long legs were one of its engines to fail on a long overwater segment. But […]

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Pratt & Whitney JT3D Turbofan Engine

Okay, here’s an engine you might never have heard of, but it was the first popular engine of a type that has arguably had more use/impact than all of the others combined: the turbofan.  Introduced in the late 1950s, the Pratt & Whitney JT3D wasn’t the first commercial turbofan, but it soon took the place […]

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General Electric J47 Turbojet Engine

Just as the limitations of the rotary engine opened the door late in World War I to new powerplant technologies, so, too, did the limitations of piston aero engines give way to the development and wide adoption of jet engines, principally the turbojet at first.  In what ways did piston engines fall short? Let us […]

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Rolls-Royce Merlin

With the ever-rising bar of expectations for military aircraft, engines had to get more powerful, more reliable and sleeker, too. A couple of inline and V-configuration engines got some momentum in the 1910s, including the Liberty V-12, which powered some WWI aircraft late in the war, as well as ground vehicles and boats. A powerful […]

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Pratt & Whitney Wasp Radial Engine

In the beginning of powered flight, designers quickly settled, with a bit of palavering, on gas-reciprocating piston engines (with air cooling for them soon winning favor as well). For more pep, aviation followed a new technology, the rotary engine, which was limited, complicated, hard to operate and unreliable. Other than that!  So it wasn’t long […]

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