Why Airlines WON'T use the Boeing 747 Anymore

she is the queen of the skies since 1969 the boeing 747 flies through the heavens around the globe for some it is the most beautiful aircraft ever built but now 53 years after boeing first started its production the last 747 is about to roll off the assembly line after that the era of this beautiful aircraft will slowly end why you ask well that's the topic of today's video you see it's not just 747's time coming to a slow end but also the one of for example the airbus a380 so why aren't you seeing any new planes before engines being manufactured let's find out in this video welcome to airspace first let's go back in time to the beginning of the age of aviation because that's where we'll find our answer eventually back in 1919 two brave men by the name of john alcock and arthur brown set out on a daring adventure they intended to fly their twin engine vickers vimy a modified first world war bomber all the way from saint john's newfoundland over the atlantic to ireland should they succeed they would be the first men to successfully cross the atlantic non-stop a brave venture for sure airplanes were not the most reliable means of transfer back then and mechanical failures in flight were definitely not unheard of but rather the norm but against all odds alcock and brown made it and landed at clifton in western ireland 16 hours after their departure their adventure had not been without its misfortunes though at one point the aviators had to fly through thick fog since they did not have any instruments showing them the attitude of their plane they quickly became disoriented and lost control of the aircraft not once but twice miraculously alcock managed to come back to stable flight conditions both times upon arrival in ireland the two men picked what they believed was a nice green field as their landing spot unfortunately what they saw was not a field but a very muddy bog when they finally touched down their plane's wheel stuck into the ground and the aircraft gnosed over it was rather heavily damaged but the pilots walked away unscathed toward their hero's welcome after this first nonstop flight many more would follow in increasingly larger aircraft carrying more and more passengers but still aviation was in its infancy and reliability of engines and planes was lackluster therefore the bureau of air commerce the precursor to today's federal air administration or faa had to take action to protect passengers in 1936 it decreed that flights had to remain within 100 miles or 60 minutes of flight time to the next airport a plane could land at you see back then engine failures were rather common it was therefore not too unreasonable to ask pilots to stay close to an airfield so that they could land if one of their engines failed it would take decades until this rule was loosened somewhat in 1953 the faa accepted planes with more than two engines from the 60 minute rule which enabled aircraft with three or four engines to fly further from a suitable airport the reasoning behind this was that one engine failure was somewhat rare but still not unheard of at the time but two simultaneous engine failures were rather unlikely if a plane could still fly reliably with two engines out then by all means it could do so even far away from airports this version of the 60 minute rule still stands today for most short haul aircraft like the boeing 737 or the airbus a320 in their standard versions the waiver of the 60 minute rule for aircraft with three or more engines came more or less at the same time than the advent of the jet age in the 60s beautiful planes like the lockheed l-1011 tristar and the dc10 were developed as you can see these aircraft support 3 jet engines and were therefore exempt from the 60 minute rule making them a prime choice for airlines at the time now you might wonder why are these 60 minutes so important you see normally when flying over populated land masses like europe or north america there is an abundance of airports to land at and the compliance with the 60 minute rule requires little to no planning but what if somebody wanted to get from europe to the united states or vice versa one would have to cross the atlantic ocean as you can see it is pretty vast and devoid of populated areas say for a few islands it is possible to cross this vastness while staying within 6 minutes of an alternate airport but it is pretty inefficient pilots cannot take a direct drought between paris and new york for example nope they would have to fly all the way up here using airports like stornoway in scotland reykjavik in iceland kulusook and nuke in greenland they collude in northern canada and from there on back to more populated areas in canada and the united states these airports are small and are often plagued by terrible weather not only during the winter months therefore airlines were very keen on using planes with more than two engines to forego the 60-minute rule in favor of a much more efficient and direct drought over the ocean for years this dominance of tri and quadjet planes prevailed until aircraft manufacturers discovered that jet engines became more and more reliable engine failures have become a rarity towards the end of the 1970s in 1976 the airbus a300 received permission to fly up to 90 minutes away from alternate airports instead of just 60. a few years later in 1980 boeing's director of engineering approached the director of the faa johnny lynn helms about the possibility of an exemption in essence he asked if boeing could manufacture a plane with only two engines that would be exempt from the dreaded 60 minute rule the director's famous response was it'll be a cold day in hell before i let twins fly long-haul over water routes by twins he of course meant planes with two jet engines still boeing kept pushing and by 1985 they had finally softened the faa enough to allow them to fly their newly developed boeing 767-200 further away from a diversion airport the new rule allowed the 2 engine 767 to stray up to 120 minutes or 2 hours away from the next safe landing possibility and thus an acronym was conceived an acronym that would change the shape and design of planes forever and would one day spell the end of the boeing 747 and the airbus a380 this acronym is etops which is short for engine's turn or passenger swim which is exactly what passengers would do if both engines of a two engine aircraft were to fail over the atlantic ocean wait what's that i i can't lie to people on the internet oh well okay here's the less fun but more true version of the term etop stands for extended range twin engine operations performance standards there you have it it's a lot less fun but oh well the introduction of the etop standard was a boon for airlines the newer aircraft with only two engines were a lot more efficient than their predecessors for example a boeing 767 burned about 3.2 tons or 7 000 pounds of fuel less per hour than a lucky tri-star on the same route for a transatlantic crossing that amounts to fuel savings in the order of about 22 and a half tons or 50 000 pounds a substantial amount in addition to that the newer aircraft were cheaper to maintain since only two not three or four engines had to be cared for and overhauled soon after more 2-engine e-tops compliant aircraft were released such as the airbus a310 with the rise of twin jets planes of three engines slowly started to disappear the 1980s saw further progress in engine manufacturing and eventually the faa created a new category of etops etops 180 which would allow pilots to fly up to 3 hours away from a suitable alternate airport this new qualification was subject to very stringent technical and operational qualifications the original regulation allowed new aircraft to be certified to a maximum of 120 minutes upon their release to airlines only after they demonstrated a year of trouble free flight they would be granted the prestigious etops 180 seders with etops 180 about 95 percent of the earth's surface is covered for transatlantic flights this means that usually only two or maybe a maximum of three alternate airports is needed for airlines and dispatchers flying flight routes this is very practical you see these airports right here are among the ones that are most frequently used by etop's flight over the atlantic ocean airports in greenland are only sometimes used since they offer challenging weather terrain and runways now with this selection of airports we can draw circles around them that correspond to a flight time of 3 hours as long as these circles overlap planning requirements are fulfilled you can see here that this allows for a pretty straight for flight planning since it is sufficient to have just one alternate airport on each side of the atlantic for example shannon and gander the size of the circles also allows for a greater flexibility in the case that one airport is unavailable due to bad weather in winter flights are frequently planned using the airport of largesse in the azores which often has a lot better weather conditions than its snowy northern counterparts this very efficient flight planning allows for pretty much direct flights between northern america and europe if you see flights that are not taking the most direct drought that will usually only be because the winds may be more favorable a bit further north or south to allow for this lenient planning with alternate airports few and far between very strict rules have to be adhered to in many departments for one the aircraft systems must be built in a very redundant way so that a failure of one system does not prompt a plane to divert in most cases also maintenance work is highly regulated for example no single mechanic may work on both engines of a given plane to reduce the possibility of human error today etops is commonplace and flights are using the rule all over the globe every single day with the development of even more reliable engines new e-top certifications have been made possible the boeing 787 dreamliner has an e-tops rating of 330 minutes or 5 hours and 30 minutes and the airbus a350 even sports an etops 370 qualification allowing for a whopping 6 hours and 10 minutes of flight time on one engine to the next airport to put that in perspective this covers 99.7 percent of the earth's surface and allows the a350 to fly directly from anywhere to anywhere in the world except directly over the south pole to maintain these very impressive certifications boeing and airbus must prove that their engines are hyper reliable just one engine incident per 100 000 hours of operation is allowed now let's come back to the beginning of the video why is e-tops responsible for the slow but certain phase out of four-engine aircraft the answer is simple newer aircraft are just a lot more efficient newer engines consume less fuel and two engines usually consume a lot less fuel than four also maintenance costs are tremendously lower if only two and not four engines have to be maintained thanks to etop's rules jets with two engines can now fly any route a plane with four engines can in an age where jet fuel is expensive and concerns for the environment are at an understandable high efficiency is key it just does not make too much economical and ecological sense anymore to operate an aircraft with four engines if a cheaper and more efficient alternative is available so there you have it aviation really has come a long way since its heyday back when daring aviators tried to make their way through fog wind weather and snow in 1919 let me know your thoughts on this video do you feel safe flying over the ocean in a plane that has just two engines i'm excited for your comments thank you so much for watching don't forget to like and subscribe so we can get the channel ever closer to 100 000 subscribers if you'd like to support your channel more permanently check out my patreon the link is in the description and in the pins comment below this video thank you very much and see you all in the next one

Channel: Airspace

Views: 378,500

Keywords: boeing 747, last boeing 747, last boeing 747 flight, etops, how do planes cross the atlantic, why do planes have two engines, why do planes have four engines, boeing, queen of the skies, queen of the skies 747, airspace, planes, why do planes, how do planes, what is etops, what is etops in aviation, etops aviation, etops specification, engines turn or passengers swim, airplanes, plane crashes, air crash investigation, aviation, documentary, aviation documentary

Id: C-HvxfmBGuw

Length: 12min 31sec (751 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 02 2022