Can an aeroplane fly when the engine has stop?

Answer 1

No It can glide.

Downwards.

I believe a 747 can still be landed though.

Answer 2

If the engines on an aircraft stop the aircraft will still "fly" as it will remain airborne - unlike a helicopter which if it loses power doesn't - but it will begin to glide. That is the aircraft will begin to fall, under the influence of gravity. The airflow over the wings caused by this descent will create lift so that the aircraft is in a controlled descent (controls will still work) in the same way as a purpose built glider does.

However the difference is, is that glider are built to glide efficiently and may have a glide ratio of say 1:15 - that means that from a height of 1 mile they could glide 15 miles horizontally before reaching the ground. Though many gliders may have much higher ratios than this.

Powered aircraft aren't really designed to glide that well, and they may have a glide ratio of only 1:5 - so from a height of 1 mile they could only cover 5 miles across the ground befre reaching ground level.

Can't give you exact figures of the top of my head, but have a look at any aircraft information site and you should be able to find this out. Good luck.

PS there have been a number of well publicised instances of aircraft loosing all power and having to glide in to a landing - some made it and some didn't - always interesting to look at the contributing factors to the incident.

Answer 3

Yes, and it will continue to fly till its airspeed drops below its stall speed for that configuration.

The engine merely generates the thrust, which gets converted to the forward speed of the aircraft. It is this speed, combined with the aerodynamic effects of the aeroplane's lifting surfaces that allows it to fly. Now, if the engine has stopped, and there is some means of maintaining the airspeed, the aircraft can still fly. In this case, its the gravitational pull of the earth that provides the required speed. However, velocity due to gravitational effects exists only when there is seperation between the aeroplane and the earth, so effectively the aeroplane gets one chance to land.

For those who have answered that it will glide, your answer is absolutely correct. Just that gliding is unpowered flight!

Answer 4

Yes, nearly all airplanes can glide without power. Every airplane has a glide ratio. If the glide ratio is 10:1 it means that the plane can glide for 10 miles for every mile of altitude. Commercial airliners are designed with glide ratios between about 11:1 and 18:1. The venerable 747 is close to 18:1 depending upon the exact model. (And the old F-4 fighter was the lone exception. It has a the glide angle of a sewer cover. Actually, a sewer cover probably has a better glide angle than an F-4.)

I was on a military charter DC-8 back in the early 1980s that lost all 4 engines due to fuel mismanagenemt enroute to Tokyo. We were braced for the worst but the pilot continuously assured us that we had enough altitude to make it safely to Yakota AB without power. We had glided for nearly 100 miles and were lined up on an extended straight-in approach to Yakota when the crew managed to get a handle on the fuel situation and execute a successful air start on 2 engines. We landed uneventfully after that.

There have been a number of safe landings of commercial airliners following complete engine failure. Probably one of the most notable was in August, 2001 of an Airbus A330 that landed at Lajes field in the Azores after losing both engines due to fuel starvation caused by a fuel leak. All 306 passengers and crew survived after gliding for about 115 miles.

And don't forget the Space Shuttle! EVERY landing is a power-off landing!

Answer 5

Theres nonetheless a moderate probability of survival...Airplanes via their aerodynamic houses will nonetheless waft even in spite of everything engines are out, and frequently planes are equipped with a RAT(Ram Air Turbine), a tiny propeller that deploys right now away on some planes at the same time as all skill is lost, so with the skill generated from the spinning RAT, the pilots may have some skill to administration a number of the planes surfaces. So coupled with the planes gliding and the skill from the RAT, the pilots can nonetheless land the plane like the Air Transat Airbus A300, that ran out of gasoline over the Atlantic, yet nonetheless landed on the Azores with none casualties at the same time as gliding and the RAT deployed, frequently the better the floor element of the wing, the longer the plane ought to be able to waft...

Answer 6

Yes, they can glide. If the engines cut out in flight, the aircraft will glide as there is enough airflow over the wings to generate lift. The aircraft will ultimately lose altitude during this glide, (gliders are light and use thermals to gain altitude) as it is heavy, but the rate of descent is not as bad as you would imagine. Even the heaviest aircraft could land safely.

Also, if an aircraft ever got to that situation, the aircrew would have known there was a problem much earlier, and would have diverted to another airfield by this point (You wouldn't be over the middle of the Atlantic, as the flight path takes aircraft over Iceland and Greenland from Europe to North America.), so any gliding would be towards a runway. The landing would be fairly safe.

Air travel is the safest form of travel. Aircraft have back-up systems, and back-up systems for the back-up systems, so if you're scared of flying, please don't worry too much, you're more likely to be struck by lightning than involved in an air disaster.

Answer 7

Yes. It still flies. It becomes a 'Heavy' glider.
The Cessna 172N has a best glide speed of 70mph, in the typical configuration, and a glide ratio of close to 8:1 - that is, it will travel 8 feet forward for every foot down, if it's configured properly. In other words, if you are 1 mile above the ground (5280 feet), you could travel 8 miles before having to land the plane.

Answer 8

It can glide. A typical light aircraft will lose about 800 feet of altitude per minute if there is no power available; you can figure out how long you can fly, and where would be a suitable place to land, if this happens. It happened to me once; I landed on a road. Minor damage to the airplane when a wingtip struck a speed limit sign.

Answer 9

The USA Space Shuttle is an aeroplane without engines and that manages to land safely (so far!) by gliding.

Answer 10

Planes can glide if its engines stop.
They can cover a distance of about the altitude*efficiency, and efficiency is usually about 15-20 in airliners (and even 60 in sailplanes), so if its altitude is 10'000 foots, it can glide for 200'000 foots....
Planes are designed to be able to take off even if an engine stops during the take off (of course this is impossible for single engined planes), and the take off is the situation when the biggest thrust (or power) is needed.

Answer 11

Yes it may glide but depends on the weather conditions, the orientation of the plane, the position it is in and the height and weight it has. Several things determine this and it also depends on how long the engine is off.