Can a passenger jet fly with only one engine working?

Question

A passenger jet being the common 737 or the like.

Answer 1

Any twin engine aircraft has to meet the requirements of FAR 23/25 to be certified. The JAA regulations are the same. A four engine airliner will not fly with one engine, and a three engine airliner will most likely not fly on one engine, but a two engine airliner will. This is part of the requirements. It is considered an IFE (In-flight Emergency), but mostly due to regulations. All airlines have to be able to meet certain requirements with a single engine failure, regardless of how many engines it is certified with. Large airliners like the A330 and 777 have to meet this requirement also, and have to be able to fly to a landing destination. These aircraft are certified to fly over the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and have to manage to get back to land. This usually requires a decent, but is completely manageable. Most engines have a power reserve for emergency situations, but are usually limited a length of time they can be run like this. This is usually only used and needed for an engine failure on take-off to meet the required 2nd segment one engine inoperative climb rate as certified. This is not needed during cruise. The available engine throttle may be advanced to a higher setting, but this is still a normal power setting for these engines, and they're not going to fail under these circumstances.

To the people who answered that this cannot be done, please don't answer questions you don't know the answer to, especially aviation related questions. Your misinformation will just continue to scare people who already have a fear of aviation due to a lack of knowledge. It's know-it-all people like you that give this industry a bad name, and most of you aren't even a part of it. For those of us who are and make our livings that way, you make our jobs more difficult by inducing these fears into uninformed people.

Answer 2

The answer is yes. When a aircraft is designed and built it has to meet many requirements set by the FAA and one of these is to fly with one engine and to be able to take off to the air with one engine damaged.

There have been many cases when an aircraft has had to fly with one engine and landed safely. My Uncle about 10years ago made a domestic flight on 737-200, after take off one of the engines took in a bird causing the engine to shut down.

The pilot was able safely to fly to the airport and land the aircraft, none of the passengers realized what happened till they landed and got asked questions by the press.

Answer 3

Just as with the rest of the systems, the second engine is only there for redundancy. We could easily be charging around the skies in single-engine aircraft but for the desires of the public for safety.
Personally, I think the airlines would be vastly more efficient if we were to design single engine flying wings that were remotely piloted. Maybe then we could fly anywhere cheaply, and truely become an integrated society.
We'd still have ignorant morons flagrantly answering questions errantly on here, as well as the idiots continually asking the same questions, but then, if not for that, what would the rest of us have to complain about?

Answer 4

Some jets can and some can't. I dk about a 737 but a 777 can fly on one engine, and I think so can teh 747-400. Alot of them can actually, they are designed to be efficient with multiplt engines but not nessesarily dependant on them.

Answer 5

If an engine failue occurs in an engine and the other engine is still working then the pilots can make it up and land .but that will be a bit difficult...If the weather conditions were bad and the plane was overweighted then the plane is gone........When the 737 or.....is flying on one engine it has to land as quickly as possible cos 1 engine cant support that damn big plane ...The pilots have to put the power of the only working engine at highest rating possible in order to handle the plane which can cause engine damage....

Answer 6

because the engines enable smaller debris jointly with air contaminates, little birds, and airborne dirt and mud to go by. Any reduce on the intake would have the skill to choke the engines. a extra appropriate answer will be to position some type of airfoil in the front of the engine to divert any products that were interior the way. This too would have the potential of choking the engines by using decreased airflow to the intake. I observed a information article on television very last week about an air rigidity base in Nebraska that makes use of a hyperactive border collie on the runways, his job is to sparkling the runways of ducks. for sure that couldn't help if the ducks are interior the air over the runway.

Answer 7

The true answer that the aircraft can fly with one engine and that the poilt adjust at first thge two engine powers at moderate power when an engine is broken down he sent more petrol to that engine so it will have more power and there is another answer that passengers aircrafts have 4 engines when one is down in a wing he work the other.

Answer 8

FAA regulations will stipulate that an aircraft be able to manage an emergency descent/flight to the closest suitable airfield when an engine has failed. However that's not to say that the second engine won't fail due to the added stress it receives from the flight but twin engine aircraft can fly with one engine and are tested that they can before they receive certification from the authorities.

Answer 9

I have to agree with sfsfan1 on this one.

The effrontery is insulting and just as well misleading. Walk on one leg, clap with one hand, I dont want to think of what analogy these folks would find for research and development of new aircrafts.

The answer is YES, they are designed to fly with one engine if required and there are many answers above that correctly says why it is incorporated in the design.

When it happens, hark, thats the sound of one hand clapping and its called aviation!

Answer 10

It continues to amaze me that persons with no knowledge of a specific topic would have the audacity to answer a question incorrectly here. I think that is just rude.

All twin-engine airliners can EASILY fly with one engine. It is definitely considered an emergency situation, but they can actually take off and climb with one engine out. Pilots practice this procedure regularly in the flight simulators for their annual check-rides.